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Did finance need defending?

by A12-B 6y ago

malka 6y ago
It does need propaganda.
knorker 6y ago
I see a lot of people not understanding that finance adds any value at all. I recently saw the documentary "System Error" which aims to push Marxist propaganda (the movie is sprinkled with Marx quotes on full screen, so that's not an exaggeration), where common tropes are repeated not recognising that finance adds value. People (and documentaries) criticizing wall street for its bad parts often end up throwing the baby out with the bath water, lumping together terrible acts and trends with the whole idea of finance, and even of economics. E.g. there's plenty to criticize, but when you say things like "finance is built on debt", you know what people think, if you don't elaborate. They think of credit card debt, crippling medical bills, etc. But from a finance perspective debt is merely a way to cause your illiquid assets to be useful to you as liquid assets. Even your credit card does that. You have an illiquid asset that is "your next pay check", that a credit card allows you to spend. It doesn't matter that the pay check is in the future, it's still an asset. Of course what you can legitimately criticize is that "that's not how credit cards are actually used on encouraged to be used". Yes. That's bad. It's exploitative and bad in other ways. But it's not inherently bad. And of course many more other ways. Stocks are a way to finance a company realizing its potential. (as are loans, and other investments, for the company). Without finance these potentials will not be realized. And people who don't know better just simplify this as "our economy is run on debt", which is true, but still not honest… because of the implications. Does finance add value to the degree it extracts money as a middleman? Hard to say. Maybe it does. But that absolutely does not mean that the people involved deserve the spoils. It's just not that hard, not that qualified.
6510 6y ago
The finite resource is trust. Just look what happened to those running shop on faith?

Did finance need defending?

by A12-B 6y ago

Did finance need defending?

malka 6y ago

It does need propaganda.

knorker 6y ago

I see a lot of people not understanding that finance adds any value at all. I recently saw the documentary "System Error" which aims to push Marxist propaganda (the movie is sprinkled with Marx quotes on full screen, so that's not an exaggeration), where common tropes are repeated not recognising that finance adds value. People (and documentaries) criticizing wall street for its bad parts often end up throwing the baby out with the bath water, lumping together terrible acts and trends with the whole idea of finance, and even of economics. E.g. there's plenty to criticize, but when you say things like "finance is built on debt", you know what people think, if you don't elaborate. They think of credit card debt, crippling medical bills, etc. But from a finance perspective debt is merely a way to cause your illiquid assets to be useful to you as liquid assets. Even your credit card does that. You have an illiquid asset that is "your next pay check", that a credit card allows you to spend. It doesn't matter that the pay check is in the future, it's still an asset. Of course what you can legitimately criticize is that "that's not how credit cards are actually used on encouraged to be used". Yes. That's bad. It's exploitative and bad in other ways. But it's not inherently bad. And of course many more other ways. Stocks are a way to finance a company realizing its potential. (as are loans, and other investments, for the company). Without finance these potentials will not be realized. And people who don't know better just simplify this as "our economy is run on debt", which is true, but still not honest… because of the implications. Does finance add value to the degree it extracts money as a middleman? Hard to say. Maybe it does. But that absolutely does not mean that the people involved deserve the spoils. It's just not that hard, not that qualified.

6510 6y ago

The finite resource is trust. Just look what happened to those running shop on faith?