Stock Market = Pyramid Scheme
With all the stock market drama, I feel compelled to state the apparently not-so-obvious: the stock market (ANY stock market, not just the ones on Wall Street in New York City) is nothing but a pyramid scheme: people buy stock at a certain price, causing it to rise, spurring others to continue buying it. The original (first) buyers sell (or hold to rip off future buyers), driving the stock down and taking the money of those who bought the stock after the first buyers. Then, in order for the second group of buyers to make money there must be a third group to buy the stock to drive up its price again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Classic pyramid scheme antics. Next...
Stop living beyond your means! Credit is an illusion and is nothing but self-inflicted slavery. It's bad enough one has to "work" for "money" in the first place so don't compound the problem by digging your wage slavery hole even deeper by taking out a loan. If you can't afford it, don't buy it! A home is NOT the American dream--don't be suckered into the delusion. A loan from a bank is only possible because people have deposited money into the bank for the bank to loan out to other people with interest (of which you get far less in a standard savings or interest-bearing checking account). Credit/loans are just other parts of the greater monetary pyramid scheme.
The world is going to have to learn that it can't survive on mythological money backed by faith alone--it just doesn't work and isn't sustainable in the long run. Going into debt needs to become a thing of the past now as more and more people wake up to the realization that it is slavery, pure and simple. Knowledge is power...but power corrupts. (Ignorance is bliss.) However, the more people who have comparable knowledge, the less they can corrupt each other. Living within one's means will become more common as people become less materialistic and wanting things they don't need (or are marketed to "want" by greedy companies/corporations).
It's time to wake up already, people...
See this blog post for another perspective.
