Just playing.
The markets are doing what the markets do - being a dick.
I guess that is because markets are generally dick-tated by a handful of the largest investors and exchanges, and they are only looking for one thing.
Profit.
Of course, we are all looking for profit on our investments, but the level we expect is likely different, especially considering the risk. However, it isn't always the more invested, the higher the risk, because with enough, low return investments can yield far more than low amounts in high risk-reward models.
I was talking to my colleague/ coach at work about financial health today, and we got onto the conversation of investing percentages. The problem is that someone who doesn't have much, no matter how hard they scrimp and save and try, can never compete with someone who has significantly more. For instance, if a person can invest 100 a week for ~5000 a year and gain 10% on top, they will have 5500 - for a profit of 500. However, If another person can put in a thousand a week and attract 5% in a low-risk vehicle, they are going to get ~2500 profit, for a 5x volume over the first.
What this means is that those with a lot can play it very conservatively, and still take an increasing amount of the growth. And this is part of what is happening in terms of the widening wealth gap, where because the majority of the value goes to those who already have the majority of the value at a higher rate than those who don't, there is no way to "catch" the leaders, but instead, there is continual falling back in relation to them.
The economy is engineered this way, and as such, it is always going to crash. People see the economy crashing as some kind of natural occurrence, but we tend- to forget that the financial economy is an engineered environment, made with unnatural laws and legislation.
If we were looking at the natural economy, it never crashes, as it is always perfectly balanced by natural laws, like energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy laws are like a perfect and apparently unhackable blockchain that handles energy transactions - No matter what energy is spent and how, it is always transferred with absolute efficiency, and the balance sheet always equals zero.
Nothing gained, nothing lost.
That is not the economy as we have designed it and not only that, we have made it even worse by shifting value away from physical resources and services, into things like the derivative markets, where over half of the world's "wealth" lays in a largely unregulated black box. They can't even accurately estimate the value, due to all the OTC trades. But, what this means is that financial value can be derived from activities that have nothing really behind it. This means that wealth can be generated out of "thin air", like creating energy out of nothing. Laws of nature say it is impossible, man-made laws of economics, says it is perfectly doable.
And this is part of the reason why the economy crashes, despite diversified consumption not necessarily changing that much. Sure, if China stops building, iron ore prices will fall in Australia, but there is no reason for global financial crises, when average consumption actually doesn't change that much, it just shifts where and on what the financial energy is getting spent.
But, inject "engineered energy" in to the system, and things get out of whack very fast. If you imagine if there are ten people with 100 marbles spread evenly among them that they trade for goods and services. In time, there will likely be a couple of people who start to have more marbles than others. However, if then in order to replenish the game, another 100 marbles were injected into the economy, based on what people already hold, what happens? Firstly, those with the most will get more of the share, and then they will also be able to invest into their business offerings to better capture what the others get, until the others run out again, and need to be topped up.
We are continually "topping up" the economy, under the guise of increasing wealth, even though our purchasing power is decreasing, and will effectively continue to do so. It has to, because in order for the corporations to make more percentage profit year after year, they have to extract it from somewhere, and what ends up happening is that the "value for money" of goods go does down. We pay more, to get less. It is like "shrinkflation" where they charge more for a packet of food, but put less food in the packet. This keeps their profits up, but we still eat the same amount, so we either have to eat less (we could probably do with that on average), or buy more.
And, we tend to buy more, the corporations make more profits, the shareholders make more gains on their investments, and the average person gets that much poorer. It doesn't matter how much money they have, because "wealth" can't be measured by how much money a person has in their pocket, it has to be measured by what they can buy with that money. They measure poverty on a baseline of a dollar amount - but is it a good measure?
The economy is broken.
It is not broken because economics is broken, it is broken because legislation is broken, and rather than destroying a deeply flawed system and starting again from scratch, the wealthy and the politicians will maintain an imbalanced system because it favors them. There isn't a cabal that decides this, it is just the drive of misaligned economic incentives. It will continue to get more and more out of shape, until it collapses under its own weight, and then there will be a reset. Not one that actually makes a difference, just one that respawns the economy back to a point where the game can start again.
Clowns.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
Like the hive airdrops at the beginning. Then the larger holders probably sold steem, doubled their hp, and had twice the clout. I think I had under 100 steem at the time, and was delighted with doubling my "money," but it was really about 10 bucks that I made.
As they say, you have to have money to make money.
Yep - I had unfortunately missed a lot of opportunity in that transfer over to Hive, as I moved too slow.
The traditional economic system is broken and collapsing, but the new cryptocurrency system seems to be following in the same footsteps whether we like it or not. The most powerful are the ones who have total control and manipulate the price as they please.
I didn't think anyone else would dare to say it. Blessings.
This is what happens when the investment funds are invited to play. However, it is a slow process to make changes and once people are accustomed to owning their own keys (this takes a lot of time), they also get the possibility to own their currency - and also fork away, and devalue assets.
You make a scathing criticism of the functioning of financial markets and the economy in general. I do not agree that markets are dominated by a few large investors and stock exchanges who primarily seek profit, which contributes to the growing wealth gap. It is logical that people with fewer resources cannot compete with those who have more, since even the conservative investments of the rich can generate more returns due to their ability to invest in greater volume. Exactly, this happens in HIVE, the powerful with one vote take a big cut while the little fish day after day fight to reach levels that allow them, "with the little they can", to provide themselves with some sustenance.
You must be careful @amigoponc, that every time you comment on something related to the hive, they end up giving you negative votes. The powerful always believe they are right. Hence the famous saying: we are not gold coins to be liked by everyone. It is said that this network is “uncensored”, but go see the damage they did to you when you exposed the theft of accounts and the bleeding of what was in them, as they tried to do with your user —I remember— and that you managed to recover after a week. Blessings, old friend.
If I remember correctly, the reason that particular post was downvoted, was because it was fundamentally wrong.
There is a "slight" difference on Hive, in that it is an opt-in system, as well as an opt-out. No one is forced to join, no one is forced to stay. No one is forced to post, vote, or do anything else here. People opt into the system at all levels.
I just feel the economy has been set in a way that those who have more benefit more and those who have little are the ones who will always get the stipends
The stipends will stop - once there is less value in giving them, than keeping them. We are leading to a situation where the majority of people are reliant on handouts - and that becomes slavery.
Ah, the economy. The biggest and longest running scam of existence. I still wanna see a collapse and what weird measures will be taken to respawn at the closest checkpoint.
Almost. Perhaps religion predates it ;)
Unfortunately, it is generally large-scale war.
I think I had started to forget just how back and forth things can be during these times. I need to get back in the rhythm of it again.
Definitely hasn't recovered yet :)
Yeah, this is why the rich get richer and the poor pretty much stay the same or get even more left behind. It is difficult to get to the rich's level and earnings, when starting with a much smaller fund. There are some that are able to do it though. Winning the lottery, being a breakout actor/content creator, being early in crypto. There are some who are able to do it by working their butts off in their field and being the best, but a lot of times, it is almost impossible to become rich through normal means. That is why crypto and Web3 has the potential to be disruptive and change the status quo.
The few (percentage-wise) that make it, tend to be very lucky - but the majority of people will never come close. the best anyone "normal" can really wish for, is to get slight increases in quality of life, but know it is never going to compare to the gains in wealth that the 0.1% will get.
Yeah, I agree. And that is the sad truth in life.
I think I am the only one who is always late to take profit and wait for the next bull run for any market :)
Definitely not the only one :)
I have noticed that is more interest on people playing with options on the ETFs or crypto related stocks. So to an extent, I don't think it will move up at all right now. It makes me wonder if the market makers with a ton of money are just waiting for that to expire before they move up.
So much manipulation - when it isn't a 1:1 trade.
Economy is changing and its due to the fact that more people are becoming wealthy and the systematic processes are many being applied to pull the money. Business and investment are two common types that gradually provides the chance to move ahead in the race.
I am at one with your definition of wealth, not measuring the possessions of it but the capacity to buy is what matters. Which indicates one more truth that if one is not competent by his own money to the services of the market, he is not wealthy.
Can it be said so more ?
I have come to discover that actually when you have more capital, it gives you that edge to earn more much more than the one with little capital and that is why it looks like people who are rich makes money more faster than the average class