Is buying shares allowed?

[saturneptune]

Back in the early history of our church, minutes record that attempts were made to exercise church discipline for this very subject. It is amusing to read, but very flawed thinking.

For those who said this is money for free, what is the difference between that and interest on a CD or savings account. Buying stocks and bonds was never meant to be a mindless pursuit. Most people build their retirement on this foundation, and if one does not understand the funds, there are automatic life cycle funds that invest based on your age and retirement date. There is nothing wrong with it.

If you want to condem gambling, how about all of us pouring money into social security, gambling that it is going to be there in ten years.

Those who equate this with entrance to heaven need to reread Scripture.

 

[saturneptune]

Well, if anyone has some shares and feels guilty about them, please send them to me.

Brother Bob,
My shares of Ennron and Worldcom are in the mail to you.

 

[Brother Bob]

Do I have to go to jail too???

 

[saturneptune]

Do I have to go to jail too???

Yes you do. They are going to put you in the cell with Salemander.

 

[Brother Bob]

Man, you either pray going in or pray coming out.

 

[Tom Butler]

Essentially, buying stock is becoming a creditor, where you are loaning money to a company to use for their development and growth.

Gambling is just giving money away.

Just a clarification here. I think you mean that buying bonds is becoming a creditor, etc. The company repays those bonds over a period of time.

Buying stock makes you an owner, not a creditor. If you own the local donut shop you own all of it. If you buy stock in Microsoft, you're an owner just like Bill Gates, and will share in the profits of the company.

Is there risk? Of course. But I'd rather risk my money on Bill Gates and his executives than on the turn of a card or roll of a dice. Cards and dice have no intelligence or experience of their own. And you have no control over them.

BTW, our church minutes back in the late 1920s record that a member was disfellowshipped for gambling. What kind of gambling? Investing in the stock market. This is what saturneptune was referring to in post #21.

 

[ktn4eg]

Having skimmed over several posts on this thread, I see this issue becoming more of an argument over semantics, namely the notion that:

Major premise: Gambling might involve risking the loss of the money that you use to gamble.

Minor premise: Investing in the stock market might involve risking the loss of the money that you use to invest in the stock market.

Conclusion: Investing in the stock market = Gambling.

Personally, I don't see that investing in the stock market necessarily equates to what we normally term as gambling, but that's just IMHO.

When you think about it, there are few things in life that do not involve taking some sort or degree of risk, but that factor alone very seldom stops people from doing those things.

Any time you drive on the highways you take the risk that you may be involved in an accident whereby you may be killed or seriously injured or at least having your car totalled (thus incurring some [or considerable] financial loss). You could call that "gambling with your life" I suppose, but that usually doesn't keep many people from driving on our highways.

Any time you marry someone, you're taking a risk that your partner may turn out to be quite different in any number of ways that you'd never thought of prior to marrying that person. Is that therefore "gambling with the future of your married life"?

I could multiply examples, but I think you see my point:

Investing in the stock market is not exactly the same as gambling your money at, for example, a casino.

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

Paul said everything is allowed me, yet everything is not to my good!

 

[billwald]

Social Security has two components, a universal welfare system and a capped, flat rate income tax system. There is no legal connection between them except the creation of a fund on paper which, by law, only holds IOUs issued by the Treasury. The SS tax, by law, has always been spent on current budget needs.

The Treasury will issue any checks that the congress and president president authorizes. The govt can always meet its financial obligation to the retired people in the same way it meets its financial obligation to the armed forces. No one ever worries about the Army going broke.

Second, 100 years ago people invested in well run companies that turned a profit. These days people gamble on companies that have never turned a profit. This trend might be reversing as some people are looking for companies that have consistantly issued dividends.

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

Why invest in the stock market when you can invest in real estate (what I do). Less risk, more reward

GE:

I heard n American economist speak the other day. He said soon America is going to have to face a what he called "property scandal" or "housing scandal".
In South Africa I have been riding the ups and downs of 'realty' to the point of sea sickness, too often, thanks. It taught me one good thing though, there's no surety but in God through Jesus Christ.