Huh? Is this learning the lessons of history or dislearning them? I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
I particularly like cranky's idea of a time-lapse workers buy-out, but everything else is laced with what you called up thread, "unintended consequences." As Colman said, a regulated market is required for allowing well-intentioned people to trade their interests.
The hard part to fathom is where to place the mirror so that people recognize that the problem isn't the stock (and commodities) markets, but that the society is rigged so that some people can't survive without a huge return. They've worked all their life, they want to live in the same fashion they have up until retirement, they don't want to sell their assets, so they have to play with their cash.
For the few who have saved a million and only need 40k a year (after taxes), 5% return on their money might do. I know one person who had a million after he retired. Actually, he has more than 2 when he retired, but bad investments left him a million after only 2 years.
Instead of being a way to keep things in balance, there are winners and losers, which appears to be at anything over or under 7%. Of course, being a loser once means that 7% just won't do...to the point where everyone's grandmother now has to be involved and gambling on every 20% potential that can spam our mailboxes.
The problem is not the stock market. The problem is how people are treated. Like many things, the solution turned into a problem. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
