Millions don't understand that Wall Street ain't Main Street.

[Cyrano]

Last week, the Dow Jones average almost crashed and everyone was selling. Today it was up and everyone was buying.

No one knows why lemmings march into the sea and kill themselves. I, for one, don't understand why any human being would trust the stock market, it's ups, downs, or it's very existence.

Stock markets are nothing more than Las Vegas casinos. It profits the few and fucks the many.

But most people don't seem to get it. Especially those who have done well, financially, for years. They don't understand that tomorrow, they can be broke, homeless and hungry.

I'm not an economist. I don't fully understand the workings of the so-called "free market."

Not am I a socialist who believes that capitalism sucks.

(An aside: I believe that the only time socialism worked was in the Kibbutzim that Israel relied upon after WWII to receive the survivors of the Holocaust. And it worked well.)

Today, America is fucked up with the rich owning about one percent of everything, and everyone else struggling to stay even, -- or perhaps they've fallen off the edge and are homeless/helpless/hungry.

For anyone who didn't get it, let me repeat it. Wall Street ain't Main Street. Whether you are aware of it or not, you're getting fucked, financially (and every other way possible) daily.

So long story short. What can you do about it? Stop voting for Republicans.

[erpowers]

1. Media Is Part of the Problem

Part of the problem is that the news media focuses too much on the ups and downs of the stock market. Also, news anchors do not point out enough that the stock market, at least the Dow, does not represent main street. I saw a news story a few years ago that pointed out that the S&P 500 was the index that gave more an insight into how main street was doing. However, those story seem to be few and for every story telling everyone Wall Street does not represent main street there are many more giving the opposite view and claiming that since pensions are invested in Wall Street, Wall Street does represent main street.