[Beingist]

Originally Posted by Mike0149

Isn't it good enough that society is unaffected?

I never suggested that society was unaffected, only that it didn't benefit from trading.

Just think how many people going about their daily lives absorb from society and deliver detriment into society.

Well, I suppose it could be argued that traders themselves can be a detriment, as it may affect the value of currency, but I'd have to study that more before making such a claim.

I hardly know where to begin: criminals; addicts externalising their healthcare costs into society; ditto those with unhealthy eating and no-exercise lifestyles; corporations running the food-and-pharma complex (the latter-day equivalent of the military-industrial complex), one promoting unhealthy overprocessed food, the latter promoting a pop-a-pill response to the health problems caused by the former, and both promoting 'regulatory capture' of the bodies charged with ensuring products coming to market are fit for purpose. Then there are the latter-day robber barons, the bankers, planning new and better ways to wrap up used toilet paper in gold wrapping paper and pretend it's as good as gold; welfare so-called 'dependant's who are able-bodied but idle... the list goes on... and on ... and on.

So, I guess your point is, "no harm, no foul." Fair enough, but that still doesn't help me see the benefit to society as a whole that traders have to offer.

Stock traders are just minding their own business. OK so it doesn't impact society - and that's a plus! Their business is none of yours; it doesn't impact you, so no reason to be judgmental about them or even concerned about them and their 'contribution to society' or lack thereof. If you want to see value delivered into 'society', use the resource at your fingertips - your own life - to do it, and let other people live their lives the way they want as long as it doesn't detract from yours. But if you feel it detracts from your own life just to see that there are others who are not delivering into society to your satisfaction, then that's your problem, not theirs, so it's down to you to deal with it, not them.

Well, as I say, I haven't done much study into the business, but again, trading itself has an impact, just no apparent benefit. As for being judgmental, if that impact is negative, then wouldn't I have a right as a citizen to issue judgment? I agree, it's "my problem to deal with," but so are child molesters. I'm asking for the benefit to society, not my own.

But, as you have admitted, there is no benefit. Thanks, at least, for that much clarification.