The stock market is going to exist and do its stock market thing whether we individually participate in it or not. If you have a bank account, your bank already invests your money in the stock market, they make a 10% return on it while they give you 1% as “interest”. So no there’s nothing bad about participation, in fact I’d rather communists take their finances seriously and use the surplus to invest in the party or something.

In the other hand we know material conditions are the drivers of change and the drivers of ideas changing, and of course someone who starts making money will see their ideas change.

The way the stock market works though is for rich people to get richer and find property to possess. This is how it came to exist in the first place. When warren Buffett puts 10 million dollars in the stock market, and he makes 600k at the end of the year from it, that’s more than most people make in 10 years.

But if you invest 10000 dollars and only make 600 at the end of the year, that’s barely enough to cover rent. Its welcome income if you are not using the 10k, but its not a wage.

This is how the game is rigged, plus all the other plans and funds rich people are allowed to invest in that are not open to us. They pay 0 taxes because they report 0 income because they live on loans that put their stock as collateral. Loans are expenses, not income, so they avoid paying taxes. We’re not gonna beat the bourgeoisie at their own game.

Marxism as far as I view it, is not about the morality of owning property or earning passive income, it is simply the scientific and material study of the underlying class dynamics at work within the political economy of society.

Secondly, I personally do not view someone being a shareholder or passive income earner as being morally bad necessarily. There are certainly some nasty and exploitative class dynamics that are happening beneath the surface, but someone choosing to not participate in it won’t make a difference given that this is about the system and not just individual choice. I will not judge those who do it when the other option is living in poverty or sub-optimal conditions, unless it involves helping the armed forces of imperialist countries or weapons manufacturers who supply said forces with armaments.

Thirdly, I do not have much advice to offer other than do what you must to survive. If welfare, charity, share-holding, or whatever helps you do that, then do it. Though I would nonetheless caution you to be smart and risk averse, which is of course not a combination often associated with being a shareholder.

All value comes from work, so any “passive income” source (including the stock market) which doesn’t require active labor, technically means you are taking labor value created by someone else.

That being said, most capitalist countries allocate little or no social resources to taking care of the non-working population (IE the elderly, children, the sick, etc), and don’t have democratic participation in deciding the allocation of social resources to taking care of these groups. Unfortunately that gives us no choice but to take part (on a smaller scale at least) in privatized retirement and health care plans. This forces us to learn finances in order to avoid a precarious existence later in life.

Of course in the long term, just like in the capitalist economy as a whole, class contradiction increase, and smaller investors are pushed out by larger ones, and like any game of monopoly, will end up with a single winner unless the board is overturned.

As long as we’re doing what we can to overthrow this system, then we can consider stock investment as a minor moral failing, especially if we don’t live in opulence, and just want a simple life. We should follow Engels’ example, and work diligently for the overthrow of capitalism, live simply, and contribute what resources we’re able to the communist cause.

The stock market is a casino, and the house (aka the rich) always comes out on top. So just be prepared to lose money. The game is rigged.

Also, most religions consider gambling a sin. I’m not personally a believer but i can understand why that tenet was adopted.

It will align your interests with those of companies, since your wealth will go up and down based on company valuation.

So if the company you work at does well because they’ve cut salaries and their stock valuation goes up, then you’ll get that dopamine hit even though you’ll be worse off overall.

I will also tell you that the stock market returns vary greatly from 52% to -43%. So unless you’ve got the capital to weather these downturns, it’s not a good way to live.

These percentages are also deceptive in that a return of -50% means you need a return of 100% to get back to where you were.

I can’t tell you if it’s good or bad, because investing as a retail investor won’t change your class, but this is what you’re getting into.

Also, if you’re not a Marxist, how did you get past the vetting?

It’s bourgeoisifying. If there can be said to be a “middle class” it’s workers that own properties and shares.

That doesn’t make it “bad” because class relations aren’t moral, but it does muddy our class interests. After all, once a worker is invested in the market, they gain an interest in the market’s performance and in the success of their class enemies.

I mean you’re not a shareholder, you are the liquidity pool of the actual shareholders 😅

Good advice given here already but as moral advice you could invest in global south markets instead of the west.

We live in a capitalist society. It’s kinda unavoidable for many people. Even Marx himself participated.

You should not make stock investments with money you can’t afford to lose. You need to read up on private economics and yourself decide what your preferred risk-profile is, but all investments come with a risk. If you currently dont have a lot of money and no stable income, I would strongly advice you to not put money into the stock market. The shorter the time-span the higher the “risk” (= the more gambling it is), which is why you should first get your esssentials in order: a roof over your head and a sustainable income. Stock market gains are never sustainable income due to the inherent risk of the investments and the amount of capital required to sustain a lifestyle by the passive yields.

Once the essentials are in order then you can start working on your risk-profile and potentially look to invest whatever leftover money is there at the end of the month to protect it from inflation.

The first step is thus to always try to identify where you can find work, upskill, try to use public resources like libraries or public education institutions which sometimes run programs for skilled employment - and only after start thinking about investments and the like.

Investing in the stockmarket is to be viewed as a way to potentially grow a portion of your leftover money that you can afford to lose, not as a way to get that money in the first place.

Just eat your superprofits sweetie 📈 🍔

To make a consistent living on stocks you already need a considerable amount of capital. Otherwise it’s just gambling. There’s nothing immoral here, just stupid way to spend money.

It’s about the same as being a landowner, I would say, unless you only own part of the company you work at.

honestly i wouldnt do it. socialist ideas aside that shit is not certain and u can lose everything