My parents did not believe in the stock market, and neither did anyone at our country church. No gambling, no card playing, no stock portfolios, no lottery tickets, no horse or dog racing, no casinos (except for the $5 steak dinner specials), no raffle tickets, no kidding. To start a stock portfolio was taking away from other people's money. Where they got that notion I couldn't say for sure, but that's how it was explained to me. My parents were bootstrap Republicans and very strict.Anyway as a Coc'er I was told no gambling on horses, Poker etc. But from what I remember stock market was acceptable. Never really understood why the Stock Market was treated differently. Don't have the numbers but I think I have lost more money on the stock market then horseracing.
When I was a kid my dad was out of work for a time. When he landed a job, it was an employee-owned company, like Wal-mart way back when, and it came with a stock portfolio. My parents went to the elders to see what they should do, and everybody left having decided that investing in my dad's employing company was okay because it was investing in his job, but my parents were strongly urged not to diversify.
