Stupidity - the most destructive force in the world. Evil at least benefits someone.

Trump net worth is $3 billion more than it was before he become a president. Likely more money was made via insider trading by his friends and family. So it's not like no one did benefit. Net loss for the country and the world is orders of magnitude higher though.

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worldsayshi 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

The more I see the stock market dropping due to idiotic mistakes that should've been very preventable, the more I think how beneficial it must be to be one of the insiders that accidentally let those idiotic things slip through.

Are we as small savers just idiots feeding this idiot machine?

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buellerbueller 2 days ago | parent [-]

>Are we as small savers just idiots feeding this idiot machine?

Yes. 401k should never have been the main retirement plan.

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lotsofpulp 2 days ago | parent [-]

I assume you mean low cost broad market index funds when you write 401k, but what other mechanism has offered financial security to so many other than having lots of productive and well networked kids that believe in helping you when you are old?

There is, of course, taxpayer funded retirement benefits, but that is just taking from others’ kids.

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buellerbueller 2 days ago | parent [-]

Unions + Pensions

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vkou 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

What do you think pension funds invest in if not the same things as my 401K?

Pensions are useful to individuals, because they support you until you die (while your 401K will either run out before you die, or will 'waste' money in the bank if you die before it runs out). But they aren't a magic money tree. They are the exact same formula. Money in, money out, it just gets distributed a little better.

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lotsofpulp 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The pensions that are so underfunded (either due to corruption or bad math) they need repeated bailouts from federal taxpayers? Hope you’re in a sufficiently politically influential union.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-business-united-states-gove...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-relief-bill-gives-86-b...

If federal taxpayers are going to bail out old people, might as well be the whole stock market so it’s not just a few politically influential unions that get bailed out.

Union members not in an insufficiently influential union can have their benefits cut:

https://www.pbgc.gov/employers-practitioners/multiemployer/i...

	▲	buellerbueller 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Bail out individuals, not the wealthy. Certainly not corporations. The stock market is rigged in favor of corporations and wealth.

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ahartmetz 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that Trump would prefer to be loved / respected / feared and remembered as the greatest US president in history over increasing his net worth.