If you walked into a casino, placed a bet on a roulette wheel, and were allowed to grab your chips back the second the ball bounced near a number you didn’t like, you would be kicked out immediately. That isn’t gambling; that is cheating.
Yet, this is exactly how the modern global economy functions.
We are told that the stock market is the engine of wealth, a place where risk is rewarded. But if the general public truly understood the mechanics of the shareholder system—if they peeled back the jargon of "equity" and "dividends"—they wouldn't just be angry. They would burn the system down.
The Horse Racing Analogy
Imagine you are at a horse track. You put your money on a horse (let’s call it The Corporation). In a fair world, you place your bet, and you ride it out. If the horse wins, you win. If the horse loses, your money is gone. That is the nature of risk.
But the shareholder system is a horse race with a trapdoor.
In this system, the "investor" places a bet. But unlike the actual workers—the jockeys and the stable hands whose livelihoods depend entirely on that horse finishing the race—the shareholder has an escape hatch.
The Liquidity Loophole: If the horse stumbles in the first lap (a bad quarterly earnings report), the shareholder doesn't have to go down with the ship. They can "pull their money out" before the race ends. They sell the stock.
The Consequence: Who is left holding the bag? The employees. When the "bettors" flee, the horse's value drops, and the company cuts costs to lure them back. That means layoffs, stagnant wages, and reduced benefits.
The Theft of Value
The "thievery" you mention isn't just about market crashes; it is about the extraction of value.
In this analogy, the horse and the jockey do the running. They expend the energy, take the physical impact, and sweat for the finish line. The shareholder sits in the VIP box, drinking champagne.
If the horse wins, the prize money doesn't go to the horse. It doesn't go to the jockey. It goes to the guy in the VIP box who clicked a button on his phone.
The system is designed to prioritize the bettor over the runner. We have structured our entire economy around the idea that the person who provides the capital (and can withdraw it at any moment) is more valuable than the people who provide the labor (and are often stuck in the race).
Why We Accept It
Why do we allow this? Because the system is cloaked in complexity. We are told that "liquidity" is good for the economy. We are distracted by the idea that anyone can buy a lottery ticket (a share) and join the VIP box.
But make no mistake: a system where you can bet on the outcome of someone else's labor, extract the winnings, and bail out the moment things get difficult isn't "investment." It is a rigged game.
If people understood that their labor is the race, and the stock market is just a window where strangers bet on how hard they can run—with the ability to cash out the second they slow down—they wouldn't stand for it. They would close the track.
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