this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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How is the stock market increasing if people aren't buying the things that those companies produce? I know the answer is because the stock market is based entirely on feelings and doesn't have any basis in reality. But I still want to ask the question.
All the money that's accumulating in the hands of the ultra rich has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is investment assets and investment assets are chosen based on going up in price and said going up in price needs not be for any reason other than that money is going into those assets in the expectation that the prices will go up (i.e. it's just a feedback loop of price increases attracting more buyers which in turn makes prices go up).
It's one big Ponzi Scheme and it will keep on going until there is no more money entering the scheme.
As it so happens we're living a long period of the wealth that was accumulated across society for decades being sucked out from the hands of the many into the hands of the few, and said few then keep putting more money into investment assets (what would be the point of buying yet another yacht) which is what keeps the whole price goes up because people buy -> people buy because price goes up loop going in so many asset categories, from housing and stocks to ultra speculative stuff like crypto.
This shit will only stop when it crashes and the longer it keeps going the harder it will crash.
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The stock market isn't really dependant on companies actually producing stuff. The expectation of them producing stuff is enough. Which is why this whole AI-circlejerk exists for example.
It is all insider trading and companines funding each other with the same non-existant money.
The stock market looks like gambling but it's actually fraud.
I feel like it's a spectrum that's entirely dependent on how much wealth and connections you start with.
For tech, it goes up because expectations on higher profits. Datacenters and the dystopia is driving right now. Memory sticks are through the roof because datacenters buys it all. Same with drives and gpus.
It takes years to build the dystopia so lots of profits on that. And then profits on watching people in real time and selling their data.
I mean, that's phrased really about as well as anyone could phrase it. You could also say that there are two Americas: the 1% and everyone else. The stock market is a measure of how the 1% are doing. When Bondi said "the Dow is over 50000!" in that senate hearing, she was basically just saying, "the rich people think this administration is great, so you should too."
2 factors:
Every salary person has 15% of their income go to the stock market for their 401k.
Most things are staples that people have to buy. Companies increase their prices and consumers don't have a choice. The increased price means increased earnings.
Currently the rest of the stock market is essentially held up by 7 companies.
https://oriongemini.substack.com/p/the-number-is-going-up
And the 401k contributions are the significant factor here. Until people start pulling their 401ks out, this wont stop.