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Originally Posted by coma  Steve, would you consider what most financial traders do to be activity number 2, ie. "mooching" ? I did ask this question in another section and I got some pretty good answers, but for the most part trading in markets such as futures/options are effectively zero-sum. |
If this person were to stop working and stop earning income, would any genuine social value be lost? If the answer is no, then you have a moocher. If the answer is yes, you have a contributor.
In the case of day trading, where the goal is to extract value from market inefficiencies, I'd say that on balance, we're usually on the moocher side. Look to the person's intentions for clarification. Is the focus of work on getting or on creating real value for others? I suppose you could be a day trader who focused on creating real value, but I've personally never met one.
However, if the goal is to invest for the long term, providing companies with extra capital so they can create more value, then we're on the contributor side -- if this work wasn't done, some social value would likely be lost.
On the other hand, if we invest in a moocher organization, such as a team of day traders, then we're mooching as well.