Goodbye Wall Street
April 24, 2002

It has been said that stock is only worth what someone will pay for it. Stock value is based solely on one thing: perception. Perception, in turn, is somewhat based on a company's financial profile, but is entirely based on the subjective assessment of buyers and sellers. This perception is what, in fact, determines not only the current price for a stock but also whether the market exists in the first place. That is to say that one the cornerstones of our economy would simply evaporate if people decided to quit buying stock.

The last person holding the hot potato loses. But it's even worse than that. If anyone loses the game in that manner, the whole deck of cards comes tumbling down. So when financial authorities tell you that you should invest in the stock market, what they are really saying is that you must invest in the market. You must do it, because the economy depends on it.

Supply and demand for goods and services is one thing. But somewhere along the line, the stock market just quit making sense. If I own a share of Disney, I can't get in free. Why? Because I don't really own anything. I have nothing but teeny vote and maybe equally small dividend. If I I'm allowed to cast 100 out of 500,000,000 votes and the vast majority of those other shares are owned by a few people, there really isn't any reason for me to bother is there. When a company sells thirty percent of their stock, but retains the rest, they are only selling smoke and mirrors and getting hard cash in return.

That's where the system fails. Mr. Entrepreneur may have a public offering to raise money for a new widget factory, but the sanity stops there. He gets cash, and that's bankable. But the buyers get little more than paper and the opportunity to sell their "shares" in the company to someone else, on and on into oblivion. The system works only because people believe that it works. If that belief changes, our whole economy will collapse and the world with it.

For better or worse, however, there will probably always be someone ready to buy stock with the expectation of financial gain. But I have disturbing news, Wall Street. I don't believe in the system and others may follow. A dividend of pennies on the dollar, an infinitesimal vote in company business, and the anticipation of capital gain as a function of a subjective popular perception just isn't convincing anymore. If you want my money, you're going to have to do better than that.

Besides, I can't buy into a system that destroys lives and everything else in its path to perpetually bolster this subjective perception of value. Company XZY's profits drop from 100 million to 70 million dollars, the stock price collapses and the layoffs begin. Didn't they still make 70 million dollars? WTF? It doesn't stop there. Our environment suffers assault after assault simply to keep costs as low as possible and stock prices stable. When is enough, enough already? Our abstractions are tools. But people are real. The environment is real.

Wall Street, I can make my money without you. I earn a salary in exchange for real work. If I start a successful business, I can make even more. Perhaps I'll publish a book and that will bring in money as well. I can buy bonds with my bags of cash and earn enough to keep up with inflation. And when I finally have so much wealth that I can't stand it anymore, I'm going to buy a submersible yacht -- I've always wanted one of those. Then one year, I'm going to sail into the middle of a Fourth of July celebration with my other "Not Wall Street" friends and pretend that we're sinking, once the fireworks start.

"Aaagh!"

Heh. It'll be a hoot.