Actually... you are providing liquidity to the market. Until recently, there was no easy way to transfer wealth intertemporally -- livestock died, grain spoile

Actually... you are providing liquidity to the market. Until recently, there was no easy way to transfer wealth intertemporally -- livestock died, grain spoiled, precious metals got stolen, land got invaded, etc. The faith that people have in the stock market -- that they can buy something now and sell it in 50 years with very low frictional costs, allows the market to function, which ultimately lowers the cost of acquiring and deploying capital. This also ensures that capital is matched to risk tolerance, and that capital is deployed most effectively. Imagine if each VC individually had to find a retail buyer for their shares.