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Almost every working person is invested in the stock market through various pension and retirement plans. To put things very simplistically, if the stock market

• vkou 6y ago
  Almost every working person is buying stock - for decades - until they retire. This means that for the majority of their life, they benefit from lower stock prices. You also get a much better annual return on your investment, through dividends, when you buy under-priced stock. Shorting deflates bubbles, before they pop. It puts the brakes on irrational markets. Working people suffer quite a bit when bubbles pop, because there are knock-on effects to employment. Also, for most Americans, their biggest 'investment' is their home [1], with stock ownership being a distant second. That doesn't mean that we should pursue a public policy intended to drive housing costs into the stratosphere [2]. Investing into the stock market through your working life is a bet on capitalism continuing to work. Short sellers aren't going to destroy capitalism. [1] Actually, their biggest investment is their job, but again, for some reason, policies that advocate for raising the price of labor to the moon aren't very popular. [2] Yet, here we are, in a world where a toolshed with no running water in a coastal metro area goes for a million dollars...
  • exolymph 6y ago
    I would not presume that 401k-type investors at large grok the idea of net-buying years versus net-selling years.