every day, millions of people go to work and build, maintain, invent, or use the means of production to generate revenue. Then once a quarter, a bunch of people get together and decide how much of that money to pay, in dividends and buybacks, to the shareholders, who legally own the very means of production mentioned earlier. That isn’t a get rich quick scheme, it’s a get rich slow scheme. And just like in any scam, they are not giving you anything back. You are paying them from your surplus value.

Shareholders trade shares between each other, but they rarely buy shares from the company so they literally do not transfer money to the company on a regular basis, and the amount raised through issuing shares is very small compared to the amount companies pay shareholders over time. So they are very literally not paying you to work for them.

Then some guy shows up where you live and says he has a legal document that means he owns your home, so you have to give him half your paycheck.