RE: TED talk: It's the middle class consumers, not the rich who create jobs
May 21, 2012 at 5:17 am
(May 20, 2012 at 2:46 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: I think its the poor who keep the economy rolling.
My reasoning is thus.
Middle class and rich people have savings, this is money that is tied down and does not benefit the economy.
100% of poor peoples money goes back into the economy. It is the cirulation that keeps economies healthy not the hoarding.
TECHNICALLY true in a sense, but as Tiberius said, the middle class spends, too. They save small portions, and spend the rest on practical items and services. The rich invest. It used to be they invested in things that benefited the economy, like start-ups and small businesses, essentially acting as venture capitalists, which is how the stock market was born. NOW, though, the rich basically play the stock market game, where a quadrillion dollars is created and destroyed every minute and everything is based upon speculation. I could go into a looooong, painfully long, and agonizingly boring detailing as to why this is more harmful than beneficial to the economy, but I'll just state that basically when you have lots of people with lots of money basically running around in herd mentalities, buying and selling commodities based not on knowledge of the business but instead looking at the short-term by-quarter, by-decision results and not at the overall potential [hence "speculation"] of certain decisions where people are not taking risks but instead are trying to "play it safe," it starts to build an atmosphere where everyone needs to "play it safe" in their decisions. Radical ideas in the financial world rock the boat and one of the main rules of the stock market? Don't rock the fucking boat. Did that mentality exist throughout America's golden age of industry and commerce? No. That was why American innovation worked; people trying new ideas and going all-in with their chips. Many people crashed and burned, but they still had the honor of saying they tried. Everything's being played safe, now. Competition in many key fields either is stagnating, inert, or simply does not exist. Ultimately, you can trace a lot of this back to the modern stock market. It's not on a huge scale yet. But it's enough that it's starting to become noticeable and it's getting worse, not better. And that shit scares me.
Don't ask me how to fix it, either. I have no idea. Well, I mean...I have ideas, but would any of them ever be implemented? Pfft, no, I'm a 24 year old with no college education and no money, I highly doubt a huge number of stock investors are going to listen to me.
Anyway.
