Marxism and the Stock Market

Ethical Qualm in the Time of Popular Investment

In the public eye Wall Street, the Stock Market, and Investment are synonymous with capitalism, particularly the type of crony capitalism that makes America a unique place. As Marxists, we reject all forms of capital accumulation, interest, and debt systems. Yet, truth be told a lot of us have a very thin understanding of these things because financial education was never a luxury afforded to us. One even suspects that financial illiteracy was purposefully maintained to keep us susceptible to student loan and credit card debt.

In 2023 it is increasingly easy to buy stock through various apps that make the process almost instant. Yet, ask anyone who has used them, and it seems like these apps are designed to help the little guy lose, funneling their pennies into companies to be swallowed up by manipulation on Wall Street. We are told that stock trading is another form of gambling, except there are some people (mostly politicians and executives) who have access to insider knowledge that can affect the price of a stock in their favor.

So how should we approach stock training as Marxists? Do we reject it outright as a form of exploitation in which the labor power of workers is traded and manipulated into imaginary capital? How have our revolutionary forefathers understood the stock market, and how has it changed since their time? Are the new forms of access to the market promising?

To answer these questions, we need to first describe how the stock market works, and then explore what Marxists have said about it.