It’s All Rigged

theatlantic.com

13 pointsjbegley4 comments

This is great. Its an even-handed, digestible outline of the current status quo that mostly steers clear of political hot-buttons in favor of level, systematic thinking.

The real problem - as it's been throughout most of human history - is not the right, or the left, but the grotesquely wealthy and powerful (as well as the incentive structures that got them there and keep them there)

Nothing is stopping someone from opening a Robinhood account, buying shares of a diversified, low-cost ETF such as VTI, (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund), and getting back to their life. The system is "rigged" against irrational, ignorant, and even vindictive ("buy GME to crush the hedgies") amateurs who choose to actively trade undiversified portfolios of over-valued stocks.

You're right.

Except that buying index funds is like paying somebody to take your vote from you. The dollar value of your account is meaningless. Those proxy votes say who goes on the board, what the company’s social agenda is, what countries they operate in, which political leaders they support, laws they sponsor, etc. And frankly, passive funds are anything but passive. With 80% of the money in the market and only yearly retargeting, they control far more liquidity than they need to make any market structure they want. So no, there is no freedom without a hard store of value.

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