The key contradiction is that financial speculation and gambling are a distinction without a difference. Financial speculation is just now more accessible and widespread than ever due to the accessibility and aggressive promotion of gambling/stock trading/crypto trading apps/websites.
Rather than reigning in financial speculation and gambling our institutions seem to have resolved the contradiction by reclassifying gambling as a legitimate "market".
Financial speculation can serve some useful purposes. If two months ago I worried that a shooting war between the US and Iran could start and adversely affect my stocks, I can use it as a hedge to isolate that risk factor. If I wanted to make money by insuring those hedges I could.
If profit is the measure of utility, then gambling is just as useful: a winning bet makes you a profit or reduces your overall losses (depending on how you view it). But fundamentally you are making a bet that some future dice roll will go your way. It is still gambling.
But how do these hedges map to actual wealth? By the power of your stocks, you were entitled If a certain share of steel, gasoline and human labor. Now if a part of this share is burned with no gain, how can playing with casino chips recover the loss?
Market works well on non-correlated risky affairs with a positive expectation (i. e. Age of Discovery marine trade, where it all started). It can't do anything about a fundamentally negative-sum game.
The key contradiction is that financial speculation and gambling are a distinction without a difference. Financial speculation is just now more accessible and widespread than ever due to the accessibility and aggressive promotion of gambling/stock trading/crypto trading apps/websites.
Rather than reigning in financial speculation and gambling our institutions seem to have resolved the contradiction by reclassifying gambling as a legitimate "market".
Financial speculation can serve some useful purposes. If two months ago I worried that a shooting war between the US and Iran could start and adversely affect my stocks, I can use it as a hedge to isolate that risk factor. If I wanted to make money by insuring those hedges I could.
You can build hedges with sports betting, as mattress mack famously does [0].
[0] https://www.chron.com/culture/article/mattress-mack-super-bo...
If profit is the measure of utility, then gambling is just as useful: a winning bet makes you a profit or reduces your overall losses (depending on how you view it). But fundamentally you are making a bet that some future dice roll will go your way. It is still gambling.
But how do these hedges map to actual wealth? By the power of your stocks, you were entitled If a certain share of steel, gasoline and human labor. Now if a part of this share is burned with no gain, how can playing with casino chips recover the loss?
Market works well on non-correlated risky affairs with a positive expectation (i. e. Age of Discovery marine trade, where it all started). It can't do anything about a fundamentally negative-sum game.