Thursday, March 16, 2023

The Stock Market Is Not The Free Market

A few months ago, there were a ton of YouTubers promoting a new sponsor: Established Titles.  This was a means by which a person could buy a 1 square foot plot of a Scottish noble’s land and then they would allegedly be able to grant themselves the title of Lord or Lady.

Also, they would plant trees on it or something.

The problem was the entire scheme is basically a sham.  You don’t become a lord or lady simply by owning a parcel of land.  Not in the modern age.

This is not to say that owning the plot wasn’t real, just that their claims of becoming a lord or lady were bogus.  Seriously, would the House of Lords in London let you in because you had title to 1 square foot of land?

As fraudulent as the scheme was, it pales in comparison to one of the biggest schemes devised by the modern West: the stock market.

Established Titles was really just a smaller scale version of the stock market.  Essentially, publicly traded companies have sold partial ownership of their company to whoever can afford it.  In effect, stockholders are considered owners of the company.

This is inherently anti-free market.  You see, in order for the free market to function, it requires private property ownership.  When you dilute a company’s ownership in such a way, it’s not longer really anyone’s property.

When everyone owns it, nobody does.

Setting that reasoning aside, think about the nature of the stock market and what would happen to it if the Federal government stopped regulating it entirely.  I mean, it became a truly free market system without any government interference.

More than likely, it would all be exposed as a fraud, much like Established Titles was.  While there are some additional benefits in owning a stock, like dividends or the ability to direct company policy, ultimately it’s a scam.

I know there are free-marketeers out there who would argue that this is not the case and that owning stocks does equal property ownership.  But if you own Disney stock, do you have the power to tell Disney to stop making LGBTQ content?  You are an owner, after all.  Your concerns should be valid.

But they aren’t.  You are no more the owner in the company you hold stock in than you are a lord or lady by owning an Established Title.

It’s really a sham that’s been developed into this behemoth of a parasitic financial system.  And it is backed by the full force and fist of the Federal government.

Unfortunately, we are stuck in a situation where investing in the stock market is one of the few options available to us.  I do have a few things tied up in mutual funds myself (not all my eggs are there, but there are some) because it is one of the few long-term investments you can make in this broken monetary system.

I would advice most business owners to never go public with your business.  If you can, keep ownership of your company in the hands of a single person, not an entity, not a group, and certainly not stockholders.

Because being a true owner means you have total control of your business, for good or ill.