The stock market has been on everyone’s minds recently what with the meteoric rise (and then fall) of GameStop stocks, as well as the ongoing battle between millions of small investors from the r/wallstreetbets Reddit community and Wall Street. And with everyone trying to come to grips with what the stock market is and how it works, some people are, understandably, lost.

Especially when people start thinking about whether or not the stock market accurately represents the real value that companies hold. Do companies that perform essential services and respect their employees have a higher value on the stock market? Not necessarily.

In fact, that’s far from the case, as Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, argues in a viral Twitter thread. In his opinion, there’s no link between the stock market and reality and it’s a system based on the rich exploiting the poor.

Read on for Bored Panda’s interview with Sam Dogen, the founder of the Financial Samurai blog, about why some CEOs get millions while average employees can lose their jobs. We’ve also been in touch with Dan, so keep an eye out for his comments and an update as well!

Entrepreneur Dan Price, who sees his own employees as his equals, explained how the stock market isn’t connected to reality and has the rich exploiting the poor

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Sam from the Financial Samurai blog explained to Bored Panda that the financial system has created an extreme dichotomy between the fortunate and those of us who happen to be, well, average. “CEOs have no magical powers. Yes, they have the operational experience to run big companies. However, they are often just spokespeople and ambassadors of the firm. One person cannot make that big a difference in a large organization. If Tim Cook from Apple steps down, the company will be fine. Another overpaid CEO will take his place,” Sam explained that CEOs, while important, aren’t all they’re trumped up to me.

“The reason why CEOs can get paid so much is due to the direct correlation of the size of the company. When a company is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, it’s easier to pay a CEO tens of millions of dollars a year, which comprised mostly of stock options,” he told Bored Panda. “At the end of the day, the CEO and the Board of Directors’ goal is to provide as much value and returns as possible for its shareholders. And if that means firing thousands of employees, then that is what they will do. It is a sad reality of extreme capitalism.”

Sam warned us that the employment situation isn’t looking too great in the future. It’s bound to get more competitive because of continued globalization and the changes in technology. “Now, a company can more easily hire a hungry person from a developing country who is willing to earn much less. The work from home trend is here to stay. The other trend we should see is more people becoming freelancers instead of full-time employees. The ability to work from home has created more solopreneurs who see more business opportunity taking on multiple clients at once.”

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

You might remember Dan as the CEO and entrepreneur who cut his own pay by a million so that all of his employees could make at least 70k dollars per year. Bored Panda has written about Dan before. You can check out our previous posts about him right here, as well as here.

In his latest viral Twitter thread, which got 18.1k likes, Dan goes into example after example about how highly-valued companies that consistently screw over their employees (many of whom lost their jobs) end up rewarding their CEOs. In short, it’s the classic tale of the rich getting richer off the backs of the poor.

While Dan is correct that unemployment is a huge issue in the US, the situation there isn’t as bad now as it was at the start of the pandemic.  Of course, that isn’t to say that people aren’t suffering: they’re losing their livelihoods and are worried about the future. However, currently, it’s nowhere near as bad as during the 14.7 percent unemployment rate peak in April 2020.

After going through Dan’s thread point by point, our blood pressure went through the roof because that sort of exploitation isn’t something you’d expect to see in civilized nations. However, business is business and, unfortunately, far too many CEOs are ready to trample over their everyday employees to get a big payout.

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

What do you think of Dan’s arguments, dear Pandas? Do you believe that the stock market is connected to reality? What can be done to change companies that reward their management at the cost of their employees?

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