Economy/Finances | Stock Markets | World/International

[Vasr]

I do not disagree with you, but you are referring to entrepreneurs, whilst I was referring to investment professionals. I should have made that more clear.

Agreed on investment success, missed the context.

 

[Neutron]

I don't disagree with any of the above but the "villainy" of these companies and leaders is not all that subtle. Just hidden. For example...

Tim Cook may look like a saint of the liberal variety and the champion of diversity. This is the image created. He is ruthless when it comes to supply chains squeezing them with whatever he can get away with legally and the number of small companies that have gone to the graveyard with the feast, plunder and famine approach of the company towards its suppliers is high. His company is considered an icon of American exceptionalism and pride and yet his accountants play every trick in the book to keep the profits away from the U.S. Treasury in taxation. He knowingly leads a company that practices predatory exploitation of the developer community leveraging monopolistic power (though satisfying the legal definition is tough) with selective enforcement of rules depending on self-interests.

But like many leaders and companies, Apple has also developed a cult of identity and an army of shareholders that have benefited that will defend it against any such accusations as long as they themselves are not affected, the practices are largely hidden and average person is disinclined to believe that such a "honest and iconic company" could be doing something so wrong. Cook's support for immigration is limited to protests only when his business model (of getting cheap labor) is affected. My conclusion from the last few years watching various things happening around me is that people are easily corruptible.

It is frustrating for people who know what is going on but do not have the power to expose it (may look familiar in other areas). One could find such things in almost any middle to large company.

One might look at the above in an extreme capitalistic, survival-of-the-fittest way and say that is what drives progress and efficiency. But that is only half the truth. We don't need to get into intangible and soft side-effects to see the damage foot-print.

The more you look at larger businesses from the inside, more one is astonished at the image people on the outside (or even employees outside the executive suites) of the clean and "ethical" image of a company. Without getting into socialism or capitalism or any such things, the business practices of companies are rotten on the inside and intentionally so by having no other way of satisfying their goals.

Not to say smaller companies are immune to this but their company ethics and policies tend to be far more influenced/controlled by the owner or head who are relatively free to moderate their practices to their values. So, it depends on how rotten they are personally rather than the institutionalized rot in large companies.

I never got the impression that Apple did anything ethical among all the changes that come with it. Perhaps the only exception is their current low emission headquarter. I might be the minority that never looked into that side of things but the level of intellectual activities involved. Plus it does make me feel less anxious about my retirement funds.

I personally think greed is a good thing. It pushes us forward unless someone crossed bottom line (law, which is rules rather than ethics but sometimes they align).

However, everyone is feel to choose how he/she handles people with issues.

 

[Wes]

greed is good - just ask G. Gecko

 

[Neutron]

greed is good - just ask G. Gecko

That one I hate too. LOL.

I am still getting my portfolio adjusted because of some potential roid rage going on. My net profit got slashed 2% this week.

 

[millssean293]

Stock market gambling is just like gambling on a horse racing.
If you have more knowledge your bets are likely to do better but you may be unlucky. If you have no knowledge you will mainly lose.
The difference is that because of inflation it looks like most people are winning whereas in fact they are just not losing as much as straight savers.
Based on engineers salary here money has lost 95% of its value since 1971. Not many gambles have actually kept up with that, unfortunately.
I wish, rather than buying a Mac II, printer and 2 meg of extra RAM for £7500 in 1987, I had bought Apple shares...

And I would like to win $ 1 million in the lotto. But reality is different))), ask bovada phone number

 

[Wes]

Actually a random walk down Wall St. shows that you will do just fine picking stocks by using a dart board - certainly, better than by buying a mutual fund with high fees.

Just spread your risk

 

[Neutron]

And I would like to win $ 1 million in the lotto. But reality is different))), ask bovada phone number

People just love dramas of some putting all their money in stock and lose all during their sleep. That makes a great story. A lot of people have false sense of security when it comes to investments.