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I think it's important to put this in the context of many other related issues/pressures: * Increasing wealth inequality for several decades now * older gener

I think it's important to put this in the context of many other related issues/pressures: * Increasing wealth inequality for several decades now * older generations holding onto more wealth and power in society than ever before - with a large share of their wealth in the stock market * Wall Street is seen as entirely unaccountable due to 2008 bailout * Pandemic this year has basically been a huge wealth transfer from normal people and small businesses towards large conglomerates and the wall street hedge funds who back them * Institutional trust is at historic lows, while online spaces become more and more regulated by those same institutions So maybe GME stock is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but it seems like all of this has to reach a boiling point eventually. I'm not sure what that will look like, but violence wouldn't be surprising.

ordinaryradical 6y ago
Nailed it. There is a context for all of what’s happening. GME may seem like a funny oddity but there is real resentment boiling underneath the surface of this event. I know it because I feel that way myself. Everything I’ve seen from how the media covers it to how our financial institutions are forming ranks to condemn retail investors sickens me. It’s making obvious the informal lines of control the investor class use to maintain their wealth and their anger to have the average person attempting to play their game. It’s like a giant metaphor for how screwed up our society has become.
- duckfang 6y ago
  Indeed. This kind of "fuck you i got mine" attitude is how countries are lost in extreme corruption or "third world" - third world countries are that because the people are impoverished, and the elite have everything. We're pretty much there. Just try driving through the Midwest, or West in areas not subsumed by the mega-cities. It's sad.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  Pretty much all media coverage of the GME thing boils down to “oh no! The wrong type of people are manipulating the stock market this time!” It’s pretty sickening and transparent. CNBC is like the propaganda arm of Wall Street.
  - godtoldmetodoit 6y ago
    Watching some CNBC clips yesterday is what convinced to put a couple hundred bucks into GME for the hell of it. I'm pretty lucky, I happened to like computers and got into a field that pays decently well for now. I have no illusions that that I'm not working class though. I watched my parents nearly get crushed in 07/08. I graduated into a economic war zone. Watching the banks get bailed out as I went to parties hosted by kids whose parents were losing the house. Seeing the kids who used to live in the house encourage everyone to punch holes in the drywall because fuck the bank. I haven't forgotten what Wall Street did to us. The wealth inequality in this country is insane. The elites have been treating the working class like dirt for decades now. With that context... those CNBC clips made me livid. Fuck the Wall Street propaganda. I'll chip in my little piece if there's a remote chance of taking down one or two of the vultures who are destroying this country with their greed. Much of the finance class that runs this country builds nothing, provides nothing, and tears down communities so they can shake a few coins out of the wreckage. In talking with my friends who voted for Trump, this is the first time I've been able to feel on the page as them in a long time. There is class rage at play here. People are sick of this system.
  - afavour 6y ago
    CNBC is like that, sure. But I’ve found articles in places like Bloomberg and NYT to be quite even handed about it all. If I recall the NYT article even ends with a quote from a pastor’s wife(!): “eat the rich”.
    - imtringued 6y ago
      I saw some mild Bloomberg articles. Not sure how they source their stories. Haven't seen anything that defends retail investors though.
  - cableshaft 6y ago
    Here's an exception in the media: Saagar Enjeti at The Hill Rising. It's a great take on the situation and he's happy to see Wall Street get kicked in the face: https://youtu.be/9ToOGrUQ7ME https://youtu.be/9ToOGrUQ7ME
- cableshaft 6y ago
  I have former Gamestop employees that hate the company and want to see its demise on my feed going 'Good. Fuck these hedge funds,' knowing full well that people are injecting money into a company they hate. When it gets to that, it seems to me that there's some serious anger built up.
bko 6y ago
To play devil's advocate.... > Increasing wealth inequality for several decades now TV talking heads bemoan about this, but billionaires still remain the most admired people in this country (Trump, Musk, Gates, etc). > older generations holding onto more wealth and power in society than ever before - with a large share of their wealth in the stock market If there was anger at the older generation, we wouldn't have so many sacred cows regarding older people (social security and medicare). Average age of senator and house member has been growing over time. Hell, we just elected a 78 year old as president. How about before the revolution we just start with voting for younger people > Wall Street is seen as entirely unaccountable due to 2008 bailout Most people don't remember this. I'm surprised how rarely its actually discussed > Pandemic this year has basically been a huge wealth transfer from normal people and small businesses towards large conglomerates and the wall street hedge funds who back them This is mostly true but people don't see it that way. They're too busy yelling at people that refuse to wear masks or people that are forcing others to wear masks. > Institutional trust is at historic lows, while online spaces become more and more regulated by those same institutions Again, we elected a 40+ year veteran politician. House and Senate re-election rates are still 85%+ and we're ceding ever more of our authority to the [health] experts. [0]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/01/yes-congress-is-getting-older-but-so-are-the-rest-of-us/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/01/yes-c...
- luxuryballs 6y ago
  You don’t really get much of a choice on who you vote for, you just get to pick which of the two parties occupies your seat. We should eliminate parties entirely and just go back to a vanilla republic where you pick someone from your community to represent you. Repeal the 17th amendment, return the Presidential electors back to being chosen by the legislators, who are voted in only by the will of their local constituents rather than the blessing of the party.
  - bko 6y ago
    There were 29 major candidates for Democratic party this year. The Democratic primaries were very competitive, and turnout was high (all things considering). Why do you think you'd have different results nationally?
luxuryballs 6y ago
Game, stop.
omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
To be fair, Wall Street's been unaccountable for a while. The 2008 was just a large example of this. Do you have a reference for older people having more wealth? There's definitely a smaller number of people holding more wealth, but I haven't read about older people holding more wealth.
- snakeboy 6y ago
  Google image search "generational wealth USA" You'll find several similar charts. I dislike the Washington Post, but it's just the first result: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariousness-modern-young-adulthood-one-chart/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariou...
  - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
    Are there any charts that aren't piecemeal? Saying that there's wealth deficit for millennials/genx because boomers have accumulated more wealth later in life is a little handy-wavy. What did the boomer chart look like when they were 20-35? What will the genx chart look like when they're 50-70? And what will the millennial chart look like when they're 30-70? Edit - 70+ for everyone would be good too.
    - snakeboy 6y ago
      > Saying that there's wealth deficit for millennials/genx because boomers have accumulated more wealth later in life is a little handy-wavy. That's not what the chart I linked is claiming. The Boomer line goes back to when they were 35. Not sure what the data limitations were preventing it from going back further. Meanwhile all age data is shown for Gen X. I'm not sure what you mean about the future chart? I guess we'll have to wait and see :-) But anyway, this chart appears to answer the question: "which generation had more relative wealth in its early 30s?"
      - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
        One possible problem is that generational earnings are a function of economic conditions. These may average out over a lifetime, but if we look at restricted intervals, it may seem like newer generations have less wealth even if they end up having similar overall wealth over their lifetime. Leaving out boomer data from ~18-35 makes me a little more suspicious of cherry picking because that data could be similar. It may also show boomers gaining even more wealth, but if it's not available we can't know.
HotVector 6y ago
If there is a big economic downfall and the government tries to play trickle down bs again I'm sure the populace would be enraged.
Aunche 6y ago
Robinhood is in a heads I win, tails you lose scenario with the press here. Wealth inequality will get even worse if regular people lose a ton of money on GME. They already fucked up by causing one guy to commit suicide, so you can't blame them for playing it safe this time.

ordinaryradical 6y ago

Nailed it. There is a context for all of what’s happening. GME may seem like a funny oddity but there is real resentment boiling underneath the surface of this event. I know it because I feel that way myself. Everything I’ve seen from how the media covers it to how our financial institutions are forming ranks to condemn retail investors sickens me. It’s making obvious the informal lines of control the investor class use to maintain their wealth and their anger to have the average person attempting to play their game. It’s like a giant metaphor for how screwed up our society has become.

duckfang 6y ago
Indeed. This kind of "fuck you i got mine" attitude is how countries are lost in extreme corruption or "third world" - third world countries are that because the people are impoverished, and the elite have everything. We're pretty much there. Just try driving through the Midwest, or West in areas not subsumed by the mega-cities. It's sad.
ryandrake 6y ago
Pretty much all media coverage of the GME thing boils down to “oh no! The wrong type of people are manipulating the stock market this time!” It’s pretty sickening and transparent. CNBC is like the propaganda arm of Wall Street.
- godtoldmetodoit 6y ago
  Watching some CNBC clips yesterday is what convinced to put a couple hundred bucks into GME for the hell of it. I'm pretty lucky, I happened to like computers and got into a field that pays decently well for now. I have no illusions that that I'm not working class though. I watched my parents nearly get crushed in 07/08. I graduated into a economic war zone. Watching the banks get bailed out as I went to parties hosted by kids whose parents were losing the house. Seeing the kids who used to live in the house encourage everyone to punch holes in the drywall because fuck the bank. I haven't forgotten what Wall Street did to us. The wealth inequality in this country is insane. The elites have been treating the working class like dirt for decades now. With that context... those CNBC clips made me livid. Fuck the Wall Street propaganda. I'll chip in my little piece if there's a remote chance of taking down one or two of the vultures who are destroying this country with their greed. Much of the finance class that runs this country builds nothing, provides nothing, and tears down communities so they can shake a few coins out of the wreckage. In talking with my friends who voted for Trump, this is the first time I've been able to feel on the page as them in a long time. There is class rage at play here. People are sick of this system.
- afavour 6y ago
  CNBC is like that, sure. But I’ve found articles in places like Bloomberg and NYT to be quite even handed about it all. If I recall the NYT article even ends with a quote from a pastor’s wife(!): “eat the rich”.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    I saw some mild Bloomberg articles. Not sure how they source their stories. Haven't seen anything that defends retail investors though.
- cableshaft 6y ago
  Here's an exception in the media: Saagar Enjeti at The Hill Rising. It's a great take on the situation and he's happy to see Wall Street get kicked in the face: https://youtu.be/9ToOGrUQ7ME https://youtu.be/9ToOGrUQ7ME
cableshaft 6y ago
I have former Gamestop employees that hate the company and want to see its demise on my feed going 'Good. Fuck these hedge funds,' knowing full well that people are injecting money into a company they hate. When it gets to that, it seems to me that there's some serious anger built up.

bko 6y ago

To play devil's advocate.... > Increasing wealth inequality for several decades now TV talking heads bemoan about this, but billionaires still remain the most admired people in this country (Trump, Musk, Gates, etc). > older generations holding onto more wealth and power in society than ever before - with a large share of their wealth in the stock market If there was anger at the older generation, we wouldn't have so many sacred cows regarding older people (social security and medicare). Average age of senator and house member has been growing over time. Hell, we just elected a 78 year old as president. How about before the revolution we just start with voting for younger people > Wall Street is seen as entirely unaccountable due to 2008 bailout Most people don't remember this. I'm surprised how rarely its actually discussed > Pandemic this year has basically been a huge wealth transfer from normal people and small businesses towards large conglomerates and the wall street hedge funds who back them This is mostly true but people don't see it that way. They're too busy yelling at people that refuse to wear masks or people that are forcing others to wear masks. > Institutional trust is at historic lows, while online spaces become more and more regulated by those same institutions Again, we elected a 40+ year veteran politician. House and Senate re-election rates are still 85%+ and we're ceding ever more of our authority to the [health] experts. [0]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/01/yes-congress-is-getting-older-but-so-are-the-rest-of-us/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/01/yes-c...

luxuryballs 6y ago
You don’t really get much of a choice on who you vote for, you just get to pick which of the two parties occupies your seat. We should eliminate parties entirely and just go back to a vanilla republic where you pick someone from your community to represent you. Repeal the 17th amendment, return the Presidential electors back to being chosen by the legislators, who are voted in only by the will of their local constituents rather than the blessing of the party.
- bko 6y ago
  There were 29 major candidates for Democratic party this year. The Democratic primaries were very competitive, and turnout was high (all things considering). Why do you think you'd have different results nationally?

luxuryballs 6y ago

Game, stop.

omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago

To be fair, Wall Street's been unaccountable for a while. The 2008 was just a large example of this. Do you have a reference for older people having more wealth? There's definitely a smaller number of people holding more wealth, but I haven't read about older people holding more wealth.

snakeboy 6y ago
Google image search "generational wealth USA" You'll find several similar charts. I dislike the Washington Post, but it's just the first result: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariousness-modern-young-adulthood-one-chart/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/03/precariou...
- omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
  Are there any charts that aren't piecemeal? Saying that there's wealth deficit for millennials/genx because boomers have accumulated more wealth later in life is a little handy-wavy. What did the boomer chart look like when they were 20-35? What will the genx chart look like when they're 50-70? And what will the millennial chart look like when they're 30-70? Edit - 70+ for everyone would be good too.
  - snakeboy 6y ago
    > Saying that there's wealth deficit for millennials/genx because boomers have accumulated more wealth later in life is a little handy-wavy. That's not what the chart I linked is claiming. The Boomer line goes back to when they were 35. Not sure what the data limitations were preventing it from going back further. Meanwhile all age data is shown for Gen X. I'm not sure what you mean about the future chart? I guess we'll have to wait and see :-) But anyway, this chart appears to answer the question: "which generation had more relative wealth in its early 30s?"
    - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
      One possible problem is that generational earnings are a function of economic conditions. These may average out over a lifetime, but if we look at restricted intervals, it may seem like newer generations have less wealth even if they end up having similar overall wealth over their lifetime. Leaving out boomer data from ~18-35 makes me a little more suspicious of cherry picking because that data could be similar. It may also show boomers gaining even more wealth, but if it's not available we can't know.

HotVector 6y ago

If there is a big economic downfall and the government tries to play trickle down bs again I'm sure the populace would be enraged.

Aunche 6y ago

Robinhood is in a heads I win, tails you lose scenario with the press here. Wealth inequality will get even worse if regular people lose a ton of money on GME. They already fucked up by causing one guy to commit suicide, so you can't blame them for playing it safe this time.