The stock market is a scam. A the biggest pyramid scheme the world has ever seen. CEOs who understand how the system works and willingly participate in it are criminals.
If we don't figure out how to more equally distribute the rewards of capitalism, we may find there are very few people left to buy the goods founders want to sell, unless we all want to do high-end art marketplace startups.
We could have a financier as a main course as well as a dessert.
We actually have figured it out. It's called "taxes". Taxes are how you do it. There, mystery solved.
The problem is that the rich have reached a level of power —through Citizens United, Fox News, disenfranchisement, and just straight up getting richer—that they can prevent taxes that harm them but would benefit the majority of Americans.
But trillions are being redistributed and that is why the stock market is up. Creating money out of nothing is a wealth tax.
COVID leaves physical capital almost entirely untouched. It is most harmful to people and in particular the poor who often work "essential" (but undercompensated) jobs, those without healthcare, and small business owners. National restaurant chains can ride it out while sole owner ones with less cushion fold. Small stores die while everyone flocks to Amazon.
The pandemic is essentially a net transfer of power to the rich. The stock market is an index of the rich—the wealthiest 10% own 85% of all stock. Of course it's going up.