0-2. Why Stock Investing for Employees is Not an Option, but Survival: The Tilted Field of Capitalism

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Introduction: The Intersection of Inevitable Equality and Brutal Inequality

From the philosophical perspective of nature and the universe, the proposition that “the world is inherently fair” is an absolute truth. The “addition of time”—24 hours a day—is honestly given to everyone, and whether one is a billionaire or a destitute wanderer on the streets, all ultimately converge to the absolute equilibrium of death. Nature never grants someone 25 hours or exempts them from death.

However, the moment we turn our gaze to our daily lives, this sublime equality shatters. The reality system we breathe and stand on—capitalism—is by no means fair. The bank account balance of those who honestly sweat through the night becomes emaciated, eaten away by inflation, while the assets of capitalists who leverage the labor and time of others expand with geometric compound interest. Anyone must have felt a bone-chilling sense of skepticism in the face of this brutal unfairness at least once. What on earth twisted the rules so that capitalism became such an unfairly rigged monster in a world otherwise governed by the truth of addition?

1. Structural Unfairness: The Ground Where the Referee Closed His Eyes

The saying that you can succeed if you try, the reprimand that you are poor only because you lack effort. This is the most sophisticated and vicious gaslighting created by capital. Nobel laureate in economics, Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, precisely pointed out the fatal contradiction of modern capitalism in his book.

“While the productivity of workers has increased dazzlingly over the past 30 years, their real wages have remained thoroughly stagnant. In contrast, the income of the top 1% has exploded.”

Originally, the state and the legal system were supposed to be the “referee” blowing the whistle so that workers and companies could fairly share the fruits on the ground called the market. However, the referee has long since rewritten the rulebook to favor the establishment and massive capital. The illusion of the ‘trickle-down effect’—that if large corporations grow, wealth will flow downwards—has long been shattered, completing a tilted field where the fruits of growth lean exclusively toward the very top of the capital pyramid. We must break free from the illusion that the rules are fair and accept the cold reality that the referee has already sided with capital.

2. The Elaborate Tragedy Born of the Corporation: Why the Referee Became Capital’s Partner

Then, what is the main culprit that made the referee (the state), who should be fair, an accomplice to capital? It is the ‘stock (corporation) system’.

  • State Finances Held Hostage: Massive national funds and finances, including public pension funds, are already tightly bound as hostages to the stock market. From the referee’s (the government’s) perspective, they are caught in a fatal dilemma where they are forced to create ‘corporate-friendly rules’ to prop up stock prices in order to maintain political power and prevent the collapse of the national economy.
  • Exploitation Praised as Lawful: Corporations hold the referee captive with the weapons of capital flight and investment reduction. The act of squeezing out book profits by laying off workers en masse or freezing wages is cruel, but in the capital market, it is praised as lawful and great management activity under the name of ‘enhancing shareholder value’.

Ultimately, the referee called the state has degenerated into a perfect partner of capital. When the referee has lost the will to enforce the rules fairly, it is merely foolish self-destruction for a worker to stubbornly stick to the honest rules of addition barehanded.

3. The Proof of Experience: The Tragedy of the Player (Laborer) and the True ‘Use’ of Insight

During my days as a corporate sales representative, I witnessed the rise and fall of countless commercial districts firsthand on the streets. The ones who breathed life into dying commercial areas were the original self-employed store owners (laborers) who ground down their ‘time’, sweating day and night.

However, once a commercial district booms, the tragedy invariably begins. Building owners (capitalists) or their second-generation heirs, who haven’t shed a single drop of sweat, suddenly jack up the rent or take over the prime spots. It is the moment when it is proven that the true winner is not the ‘player’ (laborer) who ground down their time and stamina, but the ‘team owner’ (capitalist) who gets a free ride on the sweat of others. No matter how honestly you put in time and effort, the cruel bare face of capitalism is that you can never beat the one who owns the rules and the capital.

But here, a massive, paradoxical reversal occurs. What happens when the second-generation building owners, who kicked out the original tenants and took over the spots, start running the businesses themselves? Nine times out of ten, they ruin the entire commercial district. With cold reviews from customers saying “the taste has changed” or “they lost their original mindset,” the customers stop coming. It is fatal proof that no matter how omnipotent capital is, if it lacks the ‘insight’ to read the market, it loses its way and evaporates.

So, what happened to the original tenants who were pushed out? Here, their fates diverge sharply. Those who appealed their unfairness, moved to another alley, and stubbornly insisted on only running as an honest ‘player’ ultimately failed to escape the cycle of being chased out by yet another team owner. This is because, on a tilted field, the simple addition of time can never beat the multiplication of capital.

On the other hand, those who jumped into the board of capital themselves, armed with the ‘insight’ they painfully gained on the streets, were different. They used the money they made from their businesses to buy their own buildings or secure stakes in the capital market, finally rising to become rule-makers.

Ultimately, the insight gained from rolling at the bottom is not a tool for working harder at labor. It was the most powerful weapon to step on the empty capitalists, build a true castle of wealth, and switch over to becoming a capitalist (investor).

Conclusion: Overcome the Unfairness and Board the Ship of Capital

The most powerful weapon on the board of capitalism is undoubtedly the ‘time you started’.

Assuming an annual compound interest rate of 7%, after about 10 years, capital itself creates a value equal to the principal you put in. Let’s look at a specific example. If you give the meaning of ‘investment’ to just $300 of the money you earn through the labor of addition every month and plug it into the system, 10 years later, even if you do absolutely nothing, a free bonus of $300 will be stamped into your bank account every month for the rest of your life.

This is the absolute nature of capital that applies regardless of whether your initial deposit is $300 or $3,000. The key is not the size of the amount, but how quickly you start the engine of the capital that will work on your behalf.

Many people hesitate, saying, “I’ll start when I save more money,” but the biggest cost is actually the ‘time’ let slip away like that. Even if you buy just one share, you must start a day earlier to make time—the most powerful leverage—your ally.

Will you just lament that capitalism is unfair, or will you understand its rules and board the time of capital right today? The choice depends entirely on your execution.

“The more labor betrays you, throw off the shackles of honest addition and climb aboard the massive ‘multiplication and compound interest’ engine of capital.”

“Are you still repeating the labor of addition on a tilted field, full of resentment, without even realizing that the rules have changed?”

[References & Sources]

  • Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality, W. W. Norton & Company (Analysis of structural inequality in capitalist markets and wage stagnation vs. labor productivity)