Dow turns positive for year: Erases 2,000-point plunge

[Orrex]

10. That's probably part of it, yeah

And for that quite sizable portion of society, the up and down of the stock market has no real bearing on their current or future lives. At most, it might have some indirect impact upon their company's bottom line or the health of the CEO's portfolio, but so what? Companies fire people--excuse me--I mean companies right-size people all the time, and a shaky stock market is seldom if ever the primary cause.

Realistically, the average non-investor is going to be hit harder by the whims of corporate greed than by any blip in the DOW. The endless need to fellate the shareholders drives more decisions than the number at the closing bell.

Further, the non-investor class is more or less sick to death of the incessant scoldings they receive over their scandalous failure to help puff up the stock market. When someone is living check to check (and an extraordinarily large number of people are forced to do so), then they can't afford to buy $5000 or $500 or even $50 worth of shares each month.

I rather suspect that some of the "jonesing" you perceive is a result, in part, from that frustration.

YMMV. You certainly got screwed by USAir, but I'm not going to lecture a person who lacks the income or risk tolerance needed to play the market shell game.