If you didn’t hear about GameStop in the stock market this week, you must be living pretty deep under a rock.
For some context, many investors, mainly young people brought up on the internet, used the power of social media platforms Reddit and Discord to drastically bring up the value of GameStop stocks. This action brought down the value of a particular hedge fund which was profiting from the falling value of GameStop stocks. In a process called short selling, the fund bought stock when the value was high and sold when it was low. Unable to short sell when the stock suddenly rose, the funds took big losses when they had to sell with interest.
We are a generation schooled and socialized on the internet, having access to almost all of humankind’s collective knowledge and the experience of human beings all around the globe. So, perhaps it doesn’t come as a surprise for us that folks have found a way to use the internet to their advantage. With most of America’s wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, whose fortunes are secured through many complex safeguards, the opportunity to use the stock market for the benefit of smaller, less wealthy investors is revolutionary. Especially because we’re learning how the internet can become a tool for doing so.
In short, the events on the stock market this last week were just what we need, a mini-revolution changing the disparity of wealth a little bit. The poor took from the rich, and the rich are being babies about it.
We can only hope that such grassroots strategic usage of the stock market and other accessible economic systems can help to even out the distribution of wealth and benefit those who are often left out of opportunities for profitable investments and stability. With luck and the effort of those who inhabit the internet, these events will be harbingers of a larger social change as average investors realize the power that a group of people can take when working together, connected with a common goal.
The systems the rich use to build their wealth are not in favor of the average person, or young people in particular. The fact that many sought to shut down the actions of the GameStop investors shows there are protections built into the system for those who profit enormously from these systems. It’s no longer arguable that there is an advantage to the rich, it’s plain to see what disadvantages those on the bottom have been living with.
People often take the internet for granted, yet we’ve only begun to tap into its potential for social change. Although comical in their way, the meme-driven events on the economic stage this last week are a demonstration of what can be done when a great deal of young brains connect and bend their efforts towards one goal. With the difficult recent election cycle and our hard year in general, having something in the news that benefits our generation is certainly refreshing. We look forward to seeing how the situation will develop.
Editor’s Note: The North Wind is committed to offering a free and open public forum of ideas, publishing a wide range of viewpoints to accurately represent the NMU student body. This is an editorial, written by the North Wind Editorial Board in its entirety. It reflects the majority views of the individuals who make up the editorial staff of the North Wind. It is the policy of the Editorial Board not to endorse candidates for any political office, in order to avoid aligning this public forum with particular political organizations.
