Wall Street Casino Must Go!
A Solution to help fix Late Stage Capitalism
A big story which has kind of been explored, but in a sleazy glamour sort of way in some films and documentaries - is the illogical Wall Street Casino and how we are brainwashed to believe it is the cornerstone or back bone of our economy which is simply not true. Of the 30+ million businesses in the USA only around 20,000 have more than 500 employees - so only a tiny % are big corporations- many are listed on the stock market. Yet a day does not go by that you hear about how the stock market is doing. Mostly because we went from a pension retirement society to a 401 Musical chairs Stock Market one - so the interest in stocks. But 40% of us do not own or even want stocks and the truth is that the 10% elite own and manipulate (splits, buy backs, derivatives etc) 90% of the stocks! The game is rigged and the house always wins. No one can explain what a derivative is or if they are honest it's basically a shell game or ponzi scheme.
Wall Street has had ongoing cyclic crashes or 'corrections' (euphemism) since it's early colonizer Dutch-East India beginnings - many now know about the great Tulip craze and crash in 1636. There's usually a crash every 10-15 years due to over speculations and sketchy shell game shenanigans and the ones that suffer the most are the middle and working classes. The rich get bailed out and usually keep enough money stashed away to recover and prosper again playing the Wall Street Casino to pay back the government bail out loans, make more fake fortunes based on shell games and head for the next crash. It's all about ridiculous speculations and over evaluations - fake la la land money that feeds the corporate monopoly beast in every major industry that is actually worse now than during the first Gilded Age when Teddy Roosevelt did his brave and necessary Sherman Act trust busting to allow for a real free market that Adam Smith wrote about.
But because the rich basically control our politicians like puppets on strings - our government hasn't really served the citizens for decades since Reagan basically gave the keys to America to the the top corporation executives who have run the show ever since. I have written about this for years but can't seem to get folks to take me seriously - to actually get rid of the stock market system - which is really no longer sustainable and causes real damage to millions of citizens lives due to the crashes and quarterly GDP growth by any means necessary ethos that is literally destroying our planet. Infinite growth on a finite planet is not possible or sane or sustainable.
Many will say it's impossible to scale without it and be competitive on the global stage - well Cargill has done pretty well (multi billion dollar company & monopoly) for itself and is a private family run operation and Patagonia - the new poster child for sustainable business practices is now a billion dollar private company as well. There are many other examples of big successful privately owned companies.
I propose a new economy that is more hyper local and only private or collective run companies are allowed - you only grow/scale as big as you can manage and just be happy being a multi-millionaire versus a perverted fake Wall Street billionaire. A handful of fake billionaires (not liquid assets) have grown in numbers in just last few years keeping prices high by 20%, taking advantage of the Covid crisis - as Naomi Klein wrote about years ago in The Shock Doctrine aka Disaster Capitalism. The rich 1% are nasty and sick with greed as in #greedflation.
President Biden has nothing to do with inflation! The corporations sabotage him and Democrats in the past who support unions and a progressive tax system - rich pay their fair share. Corporations raise prices on purpose to make Dems look bad for the pocket book issue that swing voters worry about. Additionally, the greedy 1% want to get a Rich Tax break Republican back in office - who also does not support unions - even if it means losing Democracy - insane! It's so obvious to anyone with half a brain but unfortunately many in USA do not even have that.
I am planting seeds to do away with the illogical and unsustainable Stock Market system that is feeding the monopoly beast (4-6 corporate monopolies within all major industries) and leading our nation toward an autocratic oligarchy like Russia and China. (where this post could not exist because of no freedom of speech)
This deeply entrenched, unfair Wall Street Stocks economic model favors the top filthy rich 1-10% of citizens to the detriment of majority of citizens, the planet and everything on it. Maybe someday we could implement a better, more equitable and simple sustainable economic system? No more hocus-pocus BS Wall Street Casino economy! You grow as a private or collective business - as much as you can manage - no more - no less. How about Real profits based on Real products and services in Real time! Imagine that! I can.
I have also been saying Wall Street is a large gambling pit, which has nothing to do with investing in businesses, but most people do not care. For example, we are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession of 2008-09.
It caused millions of home foreclosures, job losses and then hedge funds bought these homes by the tens of thousands for extremely low prices. And rent them out at high prices. Wall Street is the chief reason housing is so unaffordable.
The key takeaway I get from your post is that we have to think not in terms of being capitalists, but see capitalism as a necessary, but small part of commerce. To thrive, we must do business in accountable ways. For example, build local and regional economies that are transparently accountable as healthy and supporting neighbors. Capitalism was always to be controlled, because it is the decendant of feudalism. Democratic commerce requires Wall Street be restrained.