What some people cannot appreciate is that when you INVEST in stocks OR lets say real estate, it is all about risk taking. Most people forget to realize that the price of a house goes up AND down. Hard to believe!!! There is NO guarantee that an investment in a HOME would make you money. That kind of thinking is naive. It has nothing to do with a bank issuing mortgages either; IT was everything to do with a 'purchaser' putting NOTHING down as a downpayment. The prospective owner had NO 'skin in the game' in his home purchase. Thus thru the years, it was taken for granted that a home always went UP in price (value). Well, a reality check of that day has now arrived.

The stock market is a game of risk takers! Either you make money or you loose money. Individual stock investing IS too risky; that is why Mutual Funds are more convenient for the, as you put it 'the middle class'.

With all due respect, it didn't have anything to do with Bush, Jr. because I have been investing ever since the Johnson Admin. all the way thru the start of the Obama Admin. The fact is that the Frank/Dodd legislation (both Democrats) screwed things up with the banking industry (including Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac); it wasn't Bush Jr. What Bush and others were trying to encourage was for Americans to have a piece of the American Dream: home ownership!!

I am using home ownership as an analogy to stock ownership. You cannot have a profitable reward without incurring a certain level of risk taking. That is capitalism; that is what created this great country ever since the founding countrymen who put their lives, wealth, and 'hard work' to the task. less

There was no computerized microtrading in Johnson's day! Only huge mega conglomerates have the ability to computer microtrade. Not to mention the disparity between CEO salaries and worker salary's, which became disgustingly more disparate, yes, during the Bush Jr. Administration. Bush didn't invent owning a house, and the problems were LENDERS telling people lies, not just Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

Aren't you "Middle Class" or don't you believe in the concept?

Plus, what you're saying is, "The Stock Market isn't FOR the Little People, so stay the hell out of our money pool like a nice little peon. Maybe you get to pay a mortgage on a house for the rest of your life. Why can't you Little People just shut up and be happy with that, and leave the rest of the money to US?" That's Classist Bullshit.

And why is it only called "Class Warfare" when the Middle Class and the Poor fight back?

Bush fucked our economy and our country. It's evident to anyone who didn't have a hand it and/or didn't make a bundle in the rape and near murder of the Middle Class during the Bush Jr Administration. less

There was no computerized microtrading in Johnson's day! Only huge mega conglomerates have the ability to computer microtrade. Not to mention the disparity between CEO salaries and worker salary's, which became disgustingly more disparate, yes, during the Bush Jr. Administration. Bush didn't invent owning a house, and the problems were LENDERS telling people lies, not just Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

Aren't you "Middle Class" or don't you believe in the concept?

Plus, what you're saying is, "The Stock Market isn't FOR the Little People, so stay the hell out of our money pool like a nice little peon. Maybe you get to pay a mortgage on a house for the rest of your life. Why can't you Little People just shut up and be happy with that, and leave the rest of the money to US?" That's Classist Bullshit.

And why is it only called "Class Warfare" when the Middle Class and the Poor fight back?

Bush fucked our economy and our country. It's evident to anyone who didn't have a hand it and/or didn't make a bundle in the rape and near murder of the Middle Class during the Bush Jr Administration. less

Why are you thanking them? Facebook is on a very limited platform here - they make revenue by selling ads. And as many financial wizards have pointed out, people eventually ignore ads and stop clicking on them. As a business, outside of having an actual facebook page you keep updated regularly, the ads you buy are worthless. It won't take long before everyone figures that out and then what? Where's the money going to come from?

Besides, Facebook - just like Yahoo, LiveJournal, and many others before it - will be outdated at some point and a new platform will take over. less

With Facebook going public, they (the company) received about $19 billion dollars to be used to buy other earning generating companies, to become part of the Facebook organization. That is usually how this works out. I think, unlike Yahoo, Facebook will not make the same mistake and use the cash infusion to buy other companies who will generate cash-flow and maybe cross-sell products with their customer base of over 900 million members. less