>> Damn that private sector for inventing things that create progress. Let's pretend it's actually stopping progress when it creates progress. The software may

>> Damn that private sector for inventing things that create progress. Let's pretend it's actually stopping progress when it creates progress. The software may be beneficial, but the siphoning off of "profit" only benefits the company owners. It's friction. That's not to say it's bad. I once had a conversation with a reasonably successful investor. I tried to point out that he didn't contribute anything and get lectured on how hard he works to pick good investments. I really had to spell it out - the money comes from a transaction between the company and its customers. The customer gets something and the company gets money. The money pays for the employees who make the things or provide the service or whatever. Profit goes to the owners/investors but it really does nothing for the people who actually provide something or pay for that something. There was a time when a company issued shares to raise money, and those investors actually did something for the company. Every trader since then is simply trying to profit on what those before them did while offering zero value in the actual transactions making money for the company. I'm not saying that's bad, its how the system works today and it seems to work reasonably well. But lets not pretend the "profit" isn't friction between the parties involved in the transactions that lead to that profit.