The financial industry is about 8.4% of the U.S. economy, generating 30% of all U.S GDP. (In 1950 it was less than 3% of GDP.)

The purpose of this industry is to move money from little people to big people. They produce nothing, and yet they are among the most profitable companies in the world. Their employees make up a large percentage of the 1% of Americans who have realized 93% of the income growth since the Great Financial Crisis (which, by the way, they created by pumping up the real estate market and selling inflated shares to the unsuspecting.)

Every financial transaction we make is skimmed by this industry. Every credit card or debit card transaction, every check you write, every ATM transaction, every mortgage payment, every paycheck or dividend you receive – they get “their share”.

The best stocks to own? Financials.

Most Americans’ involvement in the financial industry consists of constantly paying exorbitant “fees” to access their own money.

A small percentage of Americans (whom you clearly strive to be among, but realistically will never be) receive “inside” information and place their bets knowing precisely where the “equity” wheel will stop.

They also own the legislature, which passes laws that allow them to realize most of the profits from their endeavors tax-free through tax “relief” and outright subsidies – paid from our taxes. And the risk? Well, the actual cost of bailing out the financial industry has never been made public, but there are numbers floating around that have 12 zeros.

Where do companies “get the capital necessary to start up factories and stores that then employ workers?” From the bankers, who skim it 2 dollars at a time from their “customers”.

What Sam’s employer is attempting to do is to help their clients navigate through the shark-infested waters of the American economy while losing less than a pound of their flesh. The reason for teaching someone to use a credit card is to qualify them to avoid being outright robbed by “payday” lenders and the other bottom-feeders of our system.

And, skeptic, as I’m sure you know, corporations are not formed for the purpose of employing people. If a corporation could produce a profit with zero employees, it would be obligated by its shareholders to do so. What’s your job?

When they eliminate it – then you will know what astounding is.

Also, the investment economy has nothing to do with siphoning wealth. How do you think companies get the capital necessary to start up factories and stores that then employ workers?

If you can get a card with an actual line of credit, and you are poor, it generally comes with fees – annual fees, one time activation fee, etc. Some cards charge you for things like credit line increases. Most cards will have an extremely low limit – $250 or $500 at max. Cash back rewards and the like don’t come into play until your credit improves.

But Sam is right, your invested dollar now goes to a “bank” that makes its money solely by moving money, and scraping a percentage of your money off the top.

Most corporations don’t actually make products. They make money by moving money or reselling products (actual, physical things) made by other corporations (people, mainly overseas, who earn cents a day), and avoiding U.S. taxes.

Corporations exist to make money for their shareholders. Fine. But they do NOT have the right to run our economy and our government. They are NOT citizens, and they should not be allowed to control the media and to buy representation in our government.

I own stock in various corporations via mutual funds. I have bought into these funds because it is the only way I can attempt to accumulate enough money to survive when I am too old to provide a profit to an employer (corporation).

I do own stock in Ford Motor Company because my father worked there for more than 50 years, and Ford builds automobiles here in the U.S. and around the world for people to get from home to work and school and to babysit their sister’s children.

I am not an opponent of capitalism, but we (those of us who were not born with capital) need a government that protects us from those who were born into wealth and power, lest they again enslave us all in the name of maximizing return to shareholders. Read our history. We’ve been here before.

When you buy a stock you’re just investing in a company, if your stock generates a return it’s due to your share of ownership in the company’s success. It’s not really about banks per se, unless you buy a bank stock, nor are you siphoning wealth from average people; that’s just not how the market works.

If a stock goes up it’s because there is a demand for it based on the company’s success, so rich people, institutional investors, other companies, pension funds, 401ks, IRAs, et, al are trying to buy it. No money is coming out of average Joe’s pocket, it’s probably some rich guy who buys the stock you sell, OR you get dividends and you’re getting cash direct from the company’s profits.

Not to mention the fact that any average person with a 401k or IRA is invested in the market.

Some companies do terrible things, the markets can be manipulated, but that’s a function of bad people, not the market in of itself. Investing is a good thing, it’s the reason we’re having this discussion because investors invested in the tech companies that created the computers, servers, networks, et, al that make this site possible.

So why being down on investing worries me, is because it makes me wonder if we’ll have a cadre of young people who don’t save and invest and then have nothing for retirement.

Very concerning.

I just got back from the US after traveling around Asia, and I think it was in Hong Kong where I read a news headline that said that people in their 20s want to become millionaires, but they don’t want to save or invest to get there.

Terrifying.

AmeriCorps was HARD- for so many reasons. But it made me view a lot of things differently, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.