Maurice,
Attempts at school marm lessons about virtue will fail to resonate here.
Compare: nypress.com
When I suggest that Americans are by and large wanton and careless spendtrifts, I do not include the uber-class, the 1% of Americans who control 48% of the wealth. Clearly they are in a class of their own.
It would be useful to your argument to actually have some facts regarding the nature of wealth and democracy in the U.S. In fact, there's a longish and well considered book on exactly that subject that been on the best sellers lists lately by Kevin Phillips.
You lump middle class Americans' net worths in with aggregated national statistics. This is perhaps one of the better ways to lie with statistics. The fact of the matter is that most middle class Americans live pay check to pay check or nearly so and are far more anxious than the aggregated national statistics you quote could ever tell you. One medical disaster is usually all it takes to send these folks into a financial hell-hole.
And as far as virtue in the corporate boardroom, I regard Irwin Jacobs as something of an anomaly. The preponderance of American corporate management has the attitude of trying to get away with everything they can, and not to create as much virtue as they can. Else how can you explain the absolute determination of corporate heads to shirk their civic duties by shifting as much of their money into tax havens as possible. This is a national scandal. Though not addressed as such by the media, nor nearly enough by the progressive elements of the Democratic Party.
I find your characterization of the virtuous American capitalist to be fantasy at its finest. The fact of the matter is that they're perpetually trying, as a class, to get away with everything they can. Including your capital.
Your lack of suitable skepticism nailed you in the instance of your Globalstar "investment", and preaching the "longs" case on QCOM seems a bit quixotic in view of the actual market history of that stock rocket.
So, I remain, as always, very curious as to the reasons for your pollyannish faith in the future of high tech investing, the managements that have created so much misery..... and chaos that is the fate of the John Q. Public type investor.
I tend rather to dwell on certain facts. First of all, over time well over 95% of all IPOs lose money for those who didn't get in on the initial insider deals. Secondly, the game is essentially one of wealth transfer from the general public to the insiders. Witness the recent research on a large universe of Silicon Valley type stocks wherein the insiders have been enriched to the tune of $3.4 Billion since 1998 or so and the market value of the shares they've offered the public has fallen by at least 98%. That is a chilling statistic for the retail investor to consider.
All the best, Ray |
