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by sokoloff5 hours ago |
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upvoteby hackyhacky5 hours ago|
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This does nothing to support your point.
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upvoteby sokoloff3 hours ago|
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Studying that chart might reveal a way to long-term invest in a way that isn't anything like gambling.

Or, I might be completely wrong and just been on an incredible white-hot-streak gambling for the last 30 years.

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upvoteby hackyhacky3 hours ago|
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"I can win" is not a refutation of the claim that investment is gambling in any way that matters. The more relevant question is: does investment reward productivity (i.e. skill, strength, labor) or does it reward ownership (i.e. those who have capital will continue to accumulate capital)? By your own statement, it seems the latter.

All of that money that you've "earned" with investment, where do you think it came from? What do you think you've done to deserve it? If investment is fundamentally risky, then it's an unsound basis for a stable society (i.e. it's gambling); if it's not risky, then you can't even argue that you deserve that money by having risked your own capital.

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upvoteby WalterBright1 hours ago|
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> All of that money that you've "earned" with investment, where do you think it came from?

It was created by the company you invested in.

> What do you think you've done to deserve it?

I took the risk of providing capital for the company to use to create wealth.

Risk is an elemental characteristic of free markets.

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upvoteby hackyhacky1 hours ago|
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> It was created by the company you invested in.

That's right: the value was created by other people, but yet you are benefiting. That makes you a parasite.

> I took the risk of providing capital for the company to use to create wealth.

So what? I can take a risk by jumping into a shallow pool. That's not the same as labor and does not entitle me, ethically, to profit. The profit should go to the people who do the work.

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upvoteby sokoloff3 hours ago|
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“Never lost money over any 20 year period” is a good enough refutation of investing in the S&P being gambling in any way that matters to allow me to act.

Others might be more conservative and I hope they find and choose investments which match their style and risk-tolerance.

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upvoteby hackyhacky2 hours ago|
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> in any way that matters to allow me to act.

I don't care how you act. That capitalism benefits the rich is not the subject of debate. This isn't /r/wallstreetbets

What is at stake us that all value is created by labor; and that the capitalist class (of which you are a member) is allowed to profit despite not producing anything at all. That makes you a parasite. Isn't that what the rich say about the poor?

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upvoteby WalterBright1 hours ago|
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> What is at stake us that all value is created by labor

That's the communist "Labor Theory of Value" which is nonsense.

For example, spend the day digging a hole in your backyard. Did you create any value? Nope.

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upvoteby hackyhacky58 minutes ago|
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> That's the communist "Labor Theory of Value" which is nonsense.

Can you explain how it's nonsense? Can you think of a valuable product or service that you consume that is not produced by labor?

> For example, spend the day digging a hole in your backyard. Did you create any value? Nope.

I didn't say that all labor produces value; I said that all value is produced by labor. As a Smart Guy who Created His Own Software Company with No Capital At All, I'm sure you know enough about elementary logic to recognize the difference.

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