as much as i think of myself as a rugged thug with street smarts, the idea of being a landlord doesn't appeal to me. likewise, telling a bank to take a chunk of my money and invest it in the most aggressive portfolio of investments feels like it vaguely conflicts with my hope for global socialism. the obvious alternative would be to invest in companies who are ethical and green, like google and lockheed-martin, but who has time to research the greenhouse gas impact of an F-35?
anyway, i asked some people and apparently you can sort of cobble together your own portfolio of investments in cooperatives and community organization bonds and such. these generally have the benefit of being highly illiquid, catastrophically risky and hold enormous transaction costs. alternatively, you can invest in large credit unions and such, which might undermine any benefit of promoting alternative forms of ownership. otherwise, it makes sense to park your savings in money-market funds, which barely protect the principal against inflation and help america fund its wars.
which investments are you hyperactively excited about?
gyrofry posted:bank robbery
The Stalin Method of Securing Financial Independence
likewise, telling a bank to take a chunk of my money and invest it in the most aggressive portfolio of investments feels like it vaguely conflicts with my hope for global socialism.
accelerationism.flv, because this is how people lose everything.
Karl Marx for Investors
Have you read The Communist Manifesto or Das Kapital? You should consider reading at least a condensed version of these works, because they might actually make you a better stock investor. (Not what K.M. had in mind, but a legacy's a legacy.)
The bulk of Marx's writing can be boiled down to two Big Ideas:
Capitalism would destroy itself. That's because price competition would keep forcing small companies out of business, reducing former owners and managers to blue collar status; and it would force companies to keep lowering their costs, including wages. The result would be a growing and increasingly desperate labor class, making a breaking point inevitable.
The value of a product equals the amount of labor that goes into making it. For example, if a factory buys some wood for $50 and then uses $100 worth of labor to turn it into a table, the fair price for the finished table is $150. Any excess that the factory charges - any profit - is thus a theft from both workers and consumers; and as this stolen value accumulates, the factory owner gets to exploit society on an ever larger scale. Or as Marx puts it in his own high style, "Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
Oooo-kay. Now for a little analysis.
The revolution never happened the way Marx predicted, but he may have been on to something with idea #1, as long as you remember he was talking about companies that sell commodity items, and have to compete on the basis of low price alone. Companies like that tend to have low profit margins, and are vulnerable to any competitor with cheaper financing or a better way of running their operations. Commodity companies can be bad news for proletarians and shareholders alike.
Idea #2 is just ignorant. Profit is the reward for doing a good job of giving consumers what they really want. Societies that have tried to abolish the profit motive always have inefficient markets: shortages, and a general failure for supply and demand to come together.
So what's here for investors? First of all, you might stay away from the commodity type companies, and look for companies with an "unfair advantage": a strong brand name, or a patent, or anything that protects them from competition and lets them keep their prices high. Second, since profits are the reward for satisfying customers, you might look for companies with a reputation for customer satisfaction.
In other words, once you give Marx a shave he starts to resemble Peter Lynch or Warren Buffett. (Finally - something really revolutionary.)
conec posted:getfiscal posted:which investments are you hyperactively excited about?
well i have 6 beanie boos coming in the mail any day now, and i just bought 2 at the store. i will have 10 beanie boos once i receive the ones i ordered ~ i also ordered some tag protectors
i was researching beanie prices the other day it seems as though the princess di one is the one to get
i love dis op fringus
Themselves posted:i love dis op fringus
thank you.
getfiscal posted:i guess it doesn't really make sense to put money into cooperatives as an investment like that because it's confusing a bunch of different contradictory goals. like is it a charitable or political thing i'm trying to do? is it just screening for minimally ethical firms but i still want a return? almost all retail banking activities are probably so worked out math wise that it's not like switching to a credit union really does a lot. especially because every large credit union acts like a bank anyway and the small ones lean on big institutions to set trends and such. once again we realize the need for a proletarian party and a revolution. in conclusion maybe i should just put it into bond funds and focus on my personal income instead of gaming the market.
Invest your money in Tesla Motors and Fireball Brand Whiskey. everyone
babyfinland posted:i just bought an ounce of organic homegrown kush
https://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/
check these guys out. be the change you want to see in the world.
conec posted:i jus bought 8oz of polyster filling to make plushies w/
i use cat litter for filling my plushies. it absorbs the smells better.
*looks over at lumpy plushy with crudely drawn face that looks vaguely like superabound*
Superabound posted:getfiscal posted:
i guess it doesn't really make sense to put money into cooperatives as an investment like that because it's confusing a bunch of different contradictory goals. like is it a charitable or political thing i'm trying to do? is it just screening for minimally ethical firms but i still want a return? almost all retail banking activities are probably so worked out math wise that it's not like switching to a credit union really does a lot. especially because every large credit union acts like a bank anyway and the small ones lean on big institutions to set trends and such. once again we realize the need for a proletarian party and a revolution. in conclusion maybe i should just put it into bond funds and focus on my personal income instead of gaming the market.
Invest your money in Tesla Motors and Fireball Brand Whiskey. everyone
idk anything about the whiskey but tesla for sure. i mean capitalism isn't going anywhere anytime soon and oil is oil and people drive cars. it's for profit but at least it's environmentally somewhat better than average
drwhat posted:Yeah that seems to be their consensus. there's some microfinance-enabling company that is targeting Peru and they have a really good job for me but I'm wondering if the liberal bullshit would suffocate me or if there's something good in it. at least where I am now it's 100% raw capitalism, I appreciate the candor
Would be nice if i had all the links to all the articles but i dont right now, so I guess you can go predate on the worlds poorest people without feeling a shame over it
