system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The stock market is hardly a step above casino gambling and negatively influences companies who they support. (r/WSB’s opinion encouraged!)

I’m a layman when it comes to the world of Wall Street, but my current disposition from the outside looking in includes several criticisms. I know there are plenty more knowledgeable people on the subject around so here are my points of contention:

1.	**Reliability of success** - How is the stock market any different than a casino? Sure, you can arguably make as educated of a guess as possible based on all sorts of information, but at the end of the day a share’s value is constantly at the mercy of any unforeseen event that could decimate that value at any moment. We’ve all heard the story of the literal monkey that created a portfolio that outperformed actual ‘experts’ in the field. 
2.	**Shareholders have a negative influence on the actions of a company** - while investors provide the financial means of expansion and innovation that looks great on paper, I believe they more often than not become a pervasive influence on the direction and accountability many companies hold themselves to. Catering to investors over the benefit of the consumer/end user is a scale tipped completely in the wrong direction. It encourages companies to feign success and assure infinite growth in the interest of securing immediate unearned funding. 
3.	**The consequences of trading are not limited to those taking the risk** - A business can be the livelihood of thousands of real working people with families to feed and provide for. What happens when that business leans too heavily on it’s value on the charts? Does this not place the outlook of an entire workforce and their loved ones in the hands of a group of traders whose commitment only exists if there’s a buck to be made?

For these reasons, I view the entire stock market operation as a glorified casino for those with more time and money than sense. A slot machine that potentially puts people’s jobs at risk making the act of frivolous trading arguably unethical in some cases. 
I realize that an argument can be made for the contrasting positive side to some of the points I’ve mentioned (e.g. The stock market can enable a business to prosper and support families just as well as they could hurt them) **but ultimately my view is that the stock market and its effects are more negative than positive.**
gpt
I think you’re too quick to lump in day trading and swing trading to actually investing. Because you absolutely cannot lump in the whole stock market to your view point. 

Sure the meme lords at WSB make the day traders look like degenerate gamblers but there is absolutely a large percentage of portfolios on the Stock Market that are full of blue chip, low growth, low risk stock that end up accruing like interest in a bank. 

Now if you said day trading/swing trading is hardly a step above casino gambling then, yes you are pretty much right. But a lot of the market is rooted in investment funds that have lots of diversified exposure which reduces your risk. 

In summary, your initial point of the whole stock market being a casino is extreme where as you’re witnessing a large scale cultural shift from relying on stock firms to the lay person with an app. A lot of what you’re seeing is a very public pump & dump disguised as memes. But in actuality most of the market (in non-crisis times) is like an sideways, acute lower case L rather than a W or M.