04-18-2011, 12:57 PM
As far as I know the only benefit the stock market gives to a company is that from the IPO they get a bunch of money no strings attached, but after that they become slaves to their stock holders for the rest of their existence unless if they bought back all the shares. Corporations single minded pursuit of profit regardless of the cost to others and the environment is pretty much a given, but its one thing to pursue profit at your own pace, its another to be expected to produce profit consistently every 3 months. The same goes for lying to the public: when a company isn't on the stock market they can lie less often, but when their sticks can go down at any point during any day the lying needs to be more consistent. In other words the stock market rewards unethical behaviour, watch The Yes Men Fix The World for an excellent example of this ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazUh0Ym8rc ). Furthermore whenever the stock market crashes - which is inevitable - it impacts the whole economy. Why should we allow it to continue to exist? It doesn't help average people in any way unless they're one of the minority of people who invest in it and make a profit, but by doing that they're supporting a corporations bad behaviour. It only helps a corporation for a very short time with the IPO, and there are alternatives to raise funds including private investors and having your employees become share holders (a co-op).