Would you be surprised if I said that (yet again) it reminds me of game theory?
More specifically, the ultimatum game. Basically, if people think an offer is unfair they will often reject it, even when they lose out in the process.
The GameStop people - and the ones cheering them on - aren't out there trying to make millions (though some might, and some late comers might lose big. It's gotten enough hype that some people will join for a variety of reasons. Some better thought out than others).
Anyways, they didn't do it to make money. Heck, I bet when this started many of them expected to lose. They spent some of their hobby money to buy stock at a higher price than they probably thought it was worth (even if they thought it was worth more than the hedge fund was betting on), and they did it because they thought what was going on wasn't fair.
You could say it was spite. There is definitely a lot of spite in the opinions I'm seeing. There's still resentment, after all...
Resentment that in 2008 big investors were 'too big to fail' and got bailed out, while plenty of ordinary people lost their homes.
Resentment of a system where a Senator made bank off information that meant the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and never publicly pushed back when the government downplayed the threat.
Resentment of a system where the rich get richer (even during a pandemic!!!) while the poor get poorer. And the rich get bailed out, trades get stopped when their money is at risk... But the rest of us are at the mercy of vagaries of fate.
As one meme I've seen quotes - it's socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
And I'm sure the well-to-do have their justifications (and self deceptions), but the other thing it reminds me of is this.
When I was in Afghanistan. Well.
Helmand province is a dry place, and water is precious. Access to it - the ability to grow your crops, and feed your livestock - can be life or death.
And part of the reason coming to some sort of agreement on water usage for the Helmand River is that we can all see the potential risks if there isn't one.
If the people upstream use water carelessly, then the downstream people won't have enough (and Iran is at the end, so there's even the potential for international disputes).
And people don't generally just roll over and die when their lives and livelihoods are on the line.
They need to feel as though they can get what they need through the system, or some percentage are going to say 'fuck the system. It's rigged against me anyway. It doesn't matter how hard I try, how hard I work.'
Not too different from 'eat the rich', a sentiment that keeps cropping up for some reason. (Can't imagine why 🙄)
Which is pretty much why I go off on 'foolish' and 'short-sighted' people in positions of power.
Because using your power to create systems that are more just and fair isn't just some moral obligation that someone should do out of the goodness of their heart.
Its because if you don't, your pretty much setting yourself up for stuff exactly like this GameStop trading kerfuffle.
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