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.
this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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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.
Astronaut meme
I know the answer is because the stock market is based entirely on feelings and doesn't have any basis in reality.
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
• Tier 1 — Magnificent Seven / Mega-Cap: Up 75–100%+ over five years. Cash-rich near-monopolies trading on AI futures. Effectively function as quasi-sovereign entities. Collectively hold over $420 billion in cash.
• Tier 2 — Rest of S&P 500: Up 50–60%. Piggybacking on the giants through index weighting. Solid balance sheets but increasingly dependent on AI-adjacent demand.
• Tier 3 — Russell 2000: Up roughly 17%. The “one percent of the losers.” Struggling but kept alive by access to public capital markets. 40–44% unprofitable. Facing a $709 billion refinancing wall in 2026–2027.
• Tier 4 — Private Middle Market: Flat to declining. Consolidating from roughly 200,000 to 125,000 firms over two decades (RSM). Margin-squeezed by tariffs and input costs. RSM MMBI showing fragility.
• Tier 5 — Main Street / Small Private Business: Fighting to exist. No access to Wall Street capital. Absorbing inflation that large firms pass through to customers. NFIB Optimism Index showing persistent fragility.
And the 401k contributions are the significant factor here. Until people start pulling their 401ks out, this wont stop.
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.
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We don't buy groceries to feed our families with the fucking stock market. All it is is a way to tell how the epstein class is raking in the dough like the parasites they are.
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The stock market is genuinely meaningless and has been detached from the real economy for well over a decade. It's indicative of nothing other than greed and the fact that the federal government keeps printing money and handing it directly to the wealthy.
Let’s sabotage and burn everything
Last time I was at the grocery store, I casually unscrewed their credit card reader display from the register while nobody was paying attention.
It's the little things that really warm my heart.
If one were to do this in Minecraft, one should be aware that there may be ALPRs in the parking lot often capable of facial recognition, overt and covert in store cameras capable of facial recognition and bluetooth trackers to pinpoint peoples' exact location as they move through the store.
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I'm genuinely down, let's organize.
Burning is still risky without more people on the cause but I suppose sabotage is still very viable even with smaller groups of people. I’ve been mulling over things like getting a job at places that are actively helping this administration to fuck things up and slow shit down for them under the guise of being an idiot who can’t do anything right or preferably totally incognito
This, more than anything, is why I hate both parties. Harris tried to gaslight us into thinking the economy was okay. Now, Donald's doing it.
But these limpdick, rich motherfuckers don't understand that the poor do their own grocery shopping, their own child care, actually open their own medical bills, and actually notice how much worse their schools have gotten and how many fewer opportunities there are to build a better life. The economy doing great for the rich has zero meaningful connection to the circumstances of the poor and middle class now.
Electing Harris would have meant Lina Khan would have stayed at the FTC and we wouldn’t have the jackass Trump just appointed to the Fed. Both parties are not the same.
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The difference is the Dems actually have a track record of making the economy at least less worse than Republicans BY FAR.
Not to mention the Build Back Better bill was originally going to be the single most progressive infrastructure upgrade bill in US history, but it was gutted because of the GOP.
I’ve just replaced “the economy” and “stock market” with “rich people’s yacht money.”
Neat cause that's basically what they did, too!
Whether or not the economy can be called "OK" is extremely dependent on who says it and when. At the time of the election campaign, it was fair to say that the economy was OK. It wasn't great, but inflation was getting under control, employment numbers were rising, it was generally trending in the right direction and could be called "OK".
Then trump comes in and from his (more specifically his ownership group's) perspective, this is currently beyond OK. Profits for the ultra-rich are skyrocketing. They clamp down on immigration to get rid of the sources of cheapest labour, then make sure the cost of living keeps rising to push people into taking whatever job they can get, for wages they previously would never have accepted. All while cashing in on planned market swings.
But yeah, tell me again how both parties are the same.
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Makes you wonder where all that stock market money is ultimately coming from...
Likely devaluing of the dollar.
Edit: stocks aren't like a bank. The "valuation" is just the median sale price over some number of trades/time.
Yeah that edit is what a lot of people don't always realize
If a company jumps up a ton in market cap, that doesn't mean the equivalent amount has been paid for its' stock. Long term holders came in at much lower prices after all. It's the current price (which depends on what people are willing to buy/sell for right now, aka the order book) multiplied by all the shares that exist, including ones that may not have been sold in a decade in the case of some company like nvidia.
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AI speculation.
Its the only place capital can be parked with a relatively low risk return.
Almost like the stock market and "economy" are just terms for how wealthy people's money is doing.
A few days ago I saw $6.08/gal at my neighborhood gas station. But of course, high gas prices won't make the Epstein files go away.
Don't worry, trickle down economics will start working and sort this out any day now.
I'm scratching my head wondering how we haven't had an official recession™ yet, but maybe it's because the rich haven't quite put everything in place to leave everyone else holding the stinky bag. Maybe that'll come with the AI company IPOs and private equity inclusions into pension and retirement investment accounts.
It’s great, if you are in that big club that you ain’t in.
Further illustrating that the stock market is just gambling for the wealthy and not a barometer of livability.
I mean stock market going up makes the rich richer, poor people don't have significant stocks
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Wonder if i should cash out all my stocks... I know its gonna crash haaard soon
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the "spending" isn't changing, it's the getting less and less for it.
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