Taking Stock of Things

Which end of the bull does our concept of market capitalism come from? Ask your typical American, and they typically term the markets as arcane playgrounds of the wealthy. Ask your typical investor and they consider them a means to an income through trading. But both these modes of thought disparage what financial markets really represent: A sphere of public concern, which guides our collective economic endeavors. By shifting our concept of the markets and therefore how they should function it is within our power to broaden our collective awareness, and to bolster our means to collective self determination.

We ought to begin with a rudimentary description of the financial markets. In the most basic sense, they are constant auction blocks for various deeds of ownership. The most well-known of financial instruments, stocks (also known as shares), represent a partial ownership stake in a corporation, guaranteeing a portion of the company’s value in a sale, as well as voting rights over the corporation’s leadership. In this way the markets should be thought to function as a ‘democratization’ of capitalism, whereby investors determine what our collective economic efforts should be put towards. Since much of our society is economic in nature, the markets move our lives and national priorities.

But this idea of the financial markets is at present perverted instead into a view of them as a simple money making scheme. Most money in the market is made off of day trading, rather than long term investment. This means that instead of a share’s price being determined by the true worth and stability of a company, that it is mostly beholden to speculation and the “horse race” of the stock market. Instead of rewarding prudent economy-building, ...

... middle of paper ...

...ect of society. The will of the majority would bear on how our labor and resources are spent. In the interest of promoting egalitarianism as well as prudent leadership, it seems imperative that we begin to make this change.

While investors give lip-service to the idea of the markets as the “engines of capitalism”, their true working definition is entirely different, constituting instead a reckless source of profit. By recategorizing the financial markets as they should be and instituting the appropriate reforms, we can begin to change our society and broaden the scope of our collective understanding. Public control over capital and business administration would represent a substantive increase in the openness and fairness of our way of life. It is this potential benefit which clinches our need to come to terms with the true and meaningful definition of the markets.