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"Occupy wallstreet" and non-profit trading firm

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Dream Five
Renegade Pleasure Androids
#1 - 2011-11-30 23:58:33 UTC
Had this idea the other day.. if people sympathizing to occupy wall street are so upset about others making a ton of profits on trading.. why wouldn't they start their own competing trading firms that would basically underbid other firms on all services/transactions and thus eliminate their profits. This "Non-profit Goldman Sachs" could also donate any proceeds to charitable causes, invest in clean energy or whatever. Basically make trading a not-for-profit thing, just like medicine is in many countries.

I actually posted this on OWS online forums but the crowd didn't seem particularly bright, they couldn't grasp the concept and accused me of "are you stupid, why are you proposing this, we fight trading!"

Thoughts?
David Forge
GameOn Inc.
#2 - 2011-12-01 00:19:35 UTC
I don't know that this is quite on topic. What?
Zions Child
Higashikata Industries
#3 - 2011-12-01 00:27:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Zions Child
First, this belongs in Off-Topic, second, it doesn't belong there because it is border line politics, third, it requires a large amount of venture capital to make money (especially in trading), the majority of which is in the hands of the very wealthy.

EDIT: Also, do you realize how incredibly insane/genius the traders are at Goldman Sachs? They pretty much masterminded the fall of AIG and TARP, and managed to figure out the bubble was bursting so far in advance that they made an enormous profit off of it, without getting caught like Citibank. I can't even imagine how horrifying it would be if there was a non-profit trading firm trying to reduce profits in the mass market.

Also, I saw your PLEX thing, which I found interesting and I'm sure you made a bit of profit on. There are plenty of people who have made considerably larger profits, in a free or close to free market, there is always a way to generate massive amounts of profits.
Fleshbot
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2011-12-01 02:22:32 UTC
Dream Five wrote:
Had this idea the other day.. if people sympathizing to occupy wall street are so upset about others making a ton of profits on trading.. why wouldn't they start their own competing trading firms that would basically underbid other firms on all services/transactions and thus eliminate their profits. This "Non-profit Goldman Sachs" could also donate any proceeds to charitable causes, invest in clean energy or whatever. Basically make trading a not-for-profit thing, just like medicine is in many countries.

I actually posted this on OWS online forums but the crowd didn't seem particularly bright, they couldn't grasp the concept and accused me of "are you stupid, why are you proposing this, we fight trading!"

Thoughts?



Non-profits must serve a public good. They can't just exist to put for profits out of business. So that is why.

Also reported for being way off topic.
Lady Godwynn
Lady Godwynn Corporation
#5 - 2011-12-01 05:53:46 UTC
Score: 3/10

Cool
Lukriss
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#6 - 2011-12-01 08:54:50 UTC
Zions Child wrote:
EDIT: Also, do you realize how incredibly insane/genius the traders are at Goldman Sachs? They pretty much masterminded the fall of AIG and TARP, and managed to figure out the bubble was bursting so far in advance that they made an enormous profit off of it, without getting caught like Citibank. I can't even imagine how horrifying it would be if there was a non-profit trading firm trying to reduce profits in the mass market.


I'm not saying they aren't genius, but you realize how much of actual trading is done by computers today?
Alain Kinsella
#7 - 2011-12-01 11:59:34 UTC
Lukriss wrote:
I'm not saying they aren't genius, but you realize how much of actual trading is done by computers today?


Pretty much all of it really. I know, I help keep them running. Twisted

Though off-topic (and bordering on IBTL), there are things one can do to make a small mint, if you're willing to invest in risky things. Look up 'Iraq Dinar Revalue' for an example (though with any luck that will end shortly).

"The Meta Game does not stop at the game. Ever."

Currently Retired / Semi-Casual (pending changes to RL concerns).
Lunatic Shakhid
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#8 - 2011-12-01 12:20:33 UTC
The Occupy protests are not against people trading, they are against rigged markets. You can't fight a rigged market from the inside, as you seem to be suggesting.

One thing that can be done is Occupy the AGMs, by buying one share in corporations such as GS and gaining the right to be present at their legally mandated shareholders meetings and question the board members directly (or disrupt the meeting as one sees fit).

Darth Tickles
Doomheim
#9 - 2011-12-01 13:47:38 UTC
As others have mentioned, the issue isn't with the extraction of legitimate profits from a valued service; it's with an insular, poorly-regulated system that is being gamed by politically-powerful institutions that are ultimately detrimental to the society in which they operate.

The finance industry isn't about the efficient allocation of capital and the smooth transition of information and prices, it is now about gaming the politico-legal system and cooking up new, not-yet-regulated schemes as regulators bust open the last schemes you were running.
Nex apparatu5
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#10 - 2011-12-01 14:08:18 UTC
Let's just say there's a reason that OWS members are camping out in tents while the people who work for the companies they're protesting are raking in the cash.
Karah Serrigan
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#11 - 2011-12-01 15:35:36 UTC
Nex apparatu5 wrote:
Let's just say there's a reason that OWS members are camping out in tents while the people who work for the companies they're protesting are raking in the cash.

They were born too late/from the wrong parents, amirite?
Zions Child
Higashikata Industries
#12 - 2011-12-01 15:40:24 UTC
Karah Serrigan wrote:
Nex apparatu5 wrote:
Let's just say there's a reason that OWS members are camping out in tents while the people who work for the companies they're protesting are raking in the cash.

They were born too late/from the wrong parents, amirite?

I mean, really, what were they thinking coming out of THOSE vaginas?
CCP Phantom
C C P
C C P Alliance
#13 - 2011-12-01 15:54:01 UTC
Moved from Market Discussions.

CCP Phantom - Senior Community Developer