That Was The Week That Wasn't

I knew a guy who would laugh inwardly as you parlayed an initial misunderstanding into outright verbal stupidity. In much the same way, Boomer Americans drew the wrong conclusions from what they saw, and now stand agog at what has transpired.

In the 50s we were surrounded by corporations that made stuff, issued shares, and held stockholders meetings. Conclusion: Americans owned their companies by shareholding, and could even control them by voting at the stockholders meetings.

In reality of course, most shares are non-voting, and shares seldom constitute the major debt of a corporation. The overwhelming impact of public trading of stock market shares has been to allow a small group of inside investors to use other people's money to create a corporation that can borrow even more money, for the purpose of making, not stuff, but money.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that General Motors makes most of their money by lending money. General Motors was formed as a pool to buy parts from car part manufacturers, and DuPont took control as soon as it became evident that General Motors would be a major buyer of automotive paints, and a major source of revenue from loans granted to buy cars. Lending money to buy homes is exactly what GM does, because they don't make cars, they make money.

IOW, only an idiot steals from a bank by robbing it- the smart guys steal from the bank by owning it.