[quote=no_such_reality][quote=CA renter]
By all means, people should go out there and create, innovate, and improve upon things. That’s valuable to society, no doubt. But “investors” who don’t create, don’t expand productive capacity, etc.? That’s zero-sum, and requires other to suffer in order for the “winners” to gain.[/quote]

You really need to go see a few more places where people don’t invest capital.[/quote]

Yeah, that’s actually empirically incorrect. Investing is a “market-sum” game where the participants share in the total market return pie (or “economic return” pie, if you like). Without the capital there’s essentially no market return to share. (Recall that the market return will ultimately be a function of economic growth… which requires that capital.) And the capital doesn’t just magically appear.

NSR is right – places that are unfriendly to capital tend not to grow much, which basically leaves everyone in the crapper.

Now, are the “financiers” (“investors” in your parlance) overpaid for the value they provide? Certainly. But there’s a pretty big gulf between the proposition they add no value versus the notion they are simply overpaid for the value they provide.