Trading stocks makes me feel dirty (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago by jackmarxist@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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I hate the whole publicly traded model of companies. I hate capitalism. But have to engage in trading stocks (I mostly do Mutual Funds and a small quantity of direct stocks) so that my money doesn't lose value by sitting in a bank or cash.

Same thing with credit cards, don't like taking loans and getting marked on a centralised list for that but it's a safer option than using your own money.

Fortunately I don't do crypto so that's a plus.

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[-] leftofthat@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I said above:

There's no functional difference to buying a $200,000 apartment and renting it out as a landlord or putting $200,000 in a 401k managed retirement fund that owns several hundred apartments buildings. And they do.

We can disagree there, then. There's a much cleaner and direct connection between a fund and rent extraction than there is between a savings bond and a bomb. That's exactly my point. These details matter.

You can lump it all together if you want. I see more nuance.

[-] TheLepidopterists@hexbear.net 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I don't agree that the connection is much more direct.

Do you feel the same way about pensions?

EDIT:

Also, when I was 19, making less than minimum wage waiting tables at a buffet, struggling to make my half of the rent payments for my shithole apartment I put what I could spare into a 401k. I didn't look at the investments at all, which means they were whatever the fund did by default, aka probably stocks. Was I a landlord at the time?

[-] leftofthat@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago

I addressed pensions in my initial comment.

Most pension funds have a similar issue in that they are investing in rent seeking etc. But unlike 401ks, pensions carry with them significant political power than can influence where the money is going. This is (imo) why they are being gutted in favor of individual 401k accounts.

Unions and pensions can be powerful tools. They're being replaced by Independent Contractors and 401ks.

If a pension fund looks identical to a 401k index fund then yeah I'd have the same opinion.

[-] TheLepidopterists@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago

This is so fucking tiresome.

Unions exist to support their members' interests. To that effect they want the pension funds' money invested efficiently and safely. They're not buying bonds for moral reasons (again they're not, it's a direct investment in the US Empire) but for security reasons. They're not buying specific stocks because they're more moral, but because they look like promising investments.

It's not morally better than a 401k, it's just more efficient and removes the individual worker from having to deal with the investments personally.

They're being gutted because it's cheaper for the companies who are extracting every dime they can from their workers.

So I guess revised list of options

Pension - only if you're a dirty rent-seeking landlord
401k invested identically to a pension - only if you're a dirty rent-seeking landlord
social security - not viable
die at your post - leftofthat approved
shovel more money directly into the empire's coffers - leftofthat approved

[-] leftofthat@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago

Damn those are some bleak options, yeah. Almost like the US is a capitalist hellscape or something.

"Join us or perish" is what they seem to be signaling, yeah.

Apparently you see that as only having two choices and are going with "join them," which is fine I'm not your morality coach. I'm certainly not asking you to sit down and die.

You can rationalize it all you want. That you have no choice but to participate. I hear it all the time from people telling me to vote for Biden.