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President Biden has said that Wall Street did not build the country. I disagree. This country was built on collaboration by Capital and Labor. Without Wall Street and its predecessors, the U.S. based on English common law and representative government likely would not be.
The Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were financed by stock companies! The Virginia Company refers collectively to two joint-stock companies chartered under James I on April 10, 1606, the London Company and the Plymouth Company. The London Company founded Jamestown in 1607. The Plymouth Company established the Popham Colony in Maine. It was abandoned and the Plymouth Company became inactive. A successor company eventually established a permanent settlement in 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Selling stocks and bonds to finance projects and business to build the country is about 250 years old in the U.S.
Late 1700s: A small group of merchants made the Buttonwood Tree Agreement. The men met daily to buy and sell stocks and bonds. This came to form the New York Stock Exchange.
1790: The Philadelphia Stock Exchange is formed, helping spur the development of the U.S.'s financial sectors and the country's expansion West.
1896: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is created. It initially has 12 components that were mainly industrial companies. These original DOW companies were companies needing funds to build the country!
Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the industrial revolution in the Northeast (1810-1850) to the settlement of the West (1850-1890). They were financed primarily through stocks and bonds. After the sharp recession of 1847, New York merchants, bankers, and brokers took up the task of financing the railroads of the South and West, and Wall Street became the undisputed financial center of the country. Patterns of American Railroad Finance, 1830-50
To this day Wall Street provides, funding to companies from Amazon to Lowe's to Zillow, and allows small investors to own a piece of thousands of companies. Wall Street finances start-ups that continue to build our country.
The formula for building the country is the junction of the Capitalist's, "I have capital; I need labor" and the Laborer's, "I have labor; I need capital."
Any "Soak the Rich" scheme is misguided. Albert Dincher (all of his days a laborer) one day told his college-educated grandson, "Bill, you have to let the rich man keep some of his money. He provides the jobs for you and me." His understanding of the relationship of Labor and Capital far exceeds that of today's Democratic party.
WILLIAM C. DINCHER
Williamsport