Reply #25: well that assumes fair distribution of information

[northzax]

and no fraud. The fact remains that, for most people, the market is a gamble. it may well be a safer bet than a slot machine in Vegas, but it is still a wager based on someone else's predicted performance. Your plan of hedging your bets against any eventuality cannot be done (google Long Term Capital Management if you'd like) If it could be done, no one would ever lose money in the market, which simply isn't true. Even Warren Buffet loses money on occasion. Why do you think the real money on Wall Street isn't in making investments for yourself, it's in selling investments to other people? if it was a purely safe gamble then no brokers would exist, they wouldn't need your money to make fortunes, they'd be keeping that information to themselves, making money for themselves. But they don't.

one other thing: you state yourself that As long as the economy grows a diversified stock portfolio is the closest thing to risk free money this side of government securities but the economy doesn't always grow, does it? and you can't safely predict it. If companies knew they could grow without risk, they would never go public and diversify that risk, they could raise all the capital they needed from private sources, why share the revenue with a million shareholders if you can keep it all to yourself? It'd be illogical.

finally, my comments on your original point about gambling: it has nothing to do with equitable distribution of wealth. I have no problem with private gaming, just as I have no problem with other private entertainment options, such as movies, theatre, concerts, sports pay TV, amusement parks and the like. All of them take money from people in exchange from the less weathly and pass it to wealthier individuals. What am I doing by going to the U2 Concert next week but taking money from my pocket and transferring it to a group of people worth a collective billion+ in exchange for a few hours of entertainment? there is nothing inherently socially valuable about it, I gain nothing but the experience. And frankly, I could make my $200 last longer at a casino than two hours, and have the chance of getting some of it back. What are the odds that U2 will refund my ticket after the show?