medem

My problem with this particular argument is that M$ attained this dominance not because of the quality of its products, or because its C-suites are geniuses, but by decades of lobbying and monopolistic market practice.

I lost every ounce of respect and admiration I had for this man after he sold the franchise to Disney.

It's != its.

Again: stock is property. Arguing that the only reason to invest in stocks is getting money out of it by selling later at a higher price would be like saying that people buy apartments/land/metals solely for future financial gain.

...and even if one doesn't buy that argument, there's the concept of hedging, which is far enough from the concept of speculation to consider it its opposite.

Not quite. A (common) stock is nothing more than a certificate of ownership of part of a company. In theory, the value of that capital should increase over time, plus you hopefully get dividends regularly. Again - it's ownership, so that means that you could, in principle, hold that instrument 'forever' (just like you would, say, a piece of land), never planning to sell it back, and therefore not giving a single f*ck about its current or future price.

These are not 'investors', but speculators.