Reply #19: The stock market as a source of savings for individuals is one of those preposterous notions

[BeyondGeography]

that has entered the mainstream courtesy of the Republicans. Anyone with the slightest bit of reflection would choose defined benefit pensions over the prospect of speculative stock market gains. "Owning your retirement" is the biggest fianncial dodge ever perpetrated by corporate America, and now most of us are stuck playing the game, which is a loser. The market will always be an insider game; profit manipulation on a day-to-day, if not hour-to-hour, basis is the way it's played. The individual can hope to be on the right side of things in the long run, but, as you've seen, it's a stressful business, and one that can actually make many of us poorer (and certainly more dependent on our unreliable employers) in the end.