[good2cu]

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Do you all consider traders/brokers/hedge funders etc. leeches/hustlers etc.?

Because these people are extactly the same as poker players.


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God, I was waiting for someone to say something stupid like this. Let's take the most simple example of stocks in a company - why do companies sell stocks? In order to gain more capital to increase research, production, marketing or any of the hundreds of other fundamental needs. Is buying a stock net positive or negative EV for the economy as a whole. Obviously positive, as these transactions allows companies to grow and evolve much more quickly than they otherwise could.

What do the people you listed do? Ultimately, they provide the intermediary between the public masses and the companies who want to sell their own stock. They are absolutely no different than the local grocery store or restaurant employees (except for the obvious difference in salary).

How abous sports stars and singers and authors and all those other entertainers (I'm going to exclude mimes from this group, as they are obviously evil and deserve to be burned over a large mass of open water so they don't return from the dead to continue their desruction of our society). These people provide a product - a product that really does not differ at all from, say, toys or video games. It's a product that is created solely to improve the quality of our lives. Admittedly, some do this better than others and some actually fail completely and make our lives worse (yes, you, Courtney Love).

Now, what exactly does an internet pro provide others in exchange for his money earned? A service? No. A product? Well, maybe you could argue that, but I rather doubt it. The average joe doesn't need a single internet pro to play against, at least no more or less than the internet pro needs the average joe to play against. Since the two are essentially providing the same "service" to each other, neither "deserves" to profit off of this interaction. If anyone is providing an actual product here, it is the online cardroom. This is why some people object rather strongly to poker (Again, people come up with lots of crazy and not so crazy reasons to oppose poker, this is just one reason). The entire job of a poker pro is to outplay his opponents and give nothing back in return. It's as simple as that.

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What your explaining explains less then 1% of stock tades. The rest is all specluation.