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You're saying that the stock market has no effects on society?

• twoodfin 14y ago
  Everything has an effect on others. The question is whether those effects are the result of voluntary actions. As far as I can tell, nobody is being forced to invest on Wall Street. Everyone is free to keep their money in gold or under their mattress. Now, if everyone chose to do those things, that would have a huge negative effect on society, massively greater than anything Wall Street has ever inflicted. But that doesn't imply we should regulate how much people are allowed to buy gold or stuff their mattresses.
  • rayiner 14y ago
    "Forced" is something that has degrees. When we replaced private pensions with 401k's, and when we got rid of the firewall between commercial and investment banks, we made it very difficult for anyone to not invest in Wall Street.
    • twoodfin 14y ago
      Private pensions didn't invest on Wall St? That's news to me.