[FRIAM] Nautilus: Investing Is More Luck Than Talent

[glen ☣]

Maybe something like this:

https://promarket.org/are-we-all-rent-seeking-investors/

"One question may even loom larger: given that more and more Americans’ pensions and long-term savings today are invested in the stock market in defined contribution schemes, have we created a pension model that is based on growing sharer of investments in rent-seeking activities? Put another way, are we facing an economic model in which tens of millions of Americans’ pensions are relying on the ability of companies to extract rents from consumers and taxpayers?"

Investments where the investors are purposefully willing to lose their money seems healthy to me.  You're trying to help someone do something productive.  But investments intended to always give a return, with little risk, seem like rent seeking to me.  If you want your money to do something good, then you're not really "investing" in the way most people use the term.  You're better off with real investment ... pay for someone's college, learn to code, buy tools for your neighborhood, etc.

Of course, there is the idea that if you "invest" your money wisely, then you reduce the amount of drag you put on the system when you're too old to be productive, or suffer a deblitating disease, or birth a kid who can't keep a job, etc.  So, when the returns are returned has to factor in somewhere.

I have no idea if this is why Chomsky might have said what he said, though.

On 01/26/2017 12:59 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> What exactly is the claim?   That property is theft?    That all investments ought to be public investments?  Or is it a weaker claim that, say, people or organizations should not be able to float along living off `earnings' from interest?   I think it is good if candidates just come right out with that as part of their platform.   Likewise, salary caps for doctors, lawyers, and so on.    It would take decades for it to gain much support, I think -- people have too much investment in American Dream type fantasies -- but it is worth proposing.


-- 
☣ glen