Why should anyone care whether the stock market is up, down, or even doesn't exist at all?

So you are say above the age of 40 and you never bothered to figure out what the stock market is for? How are you saving for your retirement? If you have a pension plan, you better believe that some of the pension plans investments are in the stock market. Virtually every product that you use comes from a company with equity financing. If you eat at McDonalds or buy any Proctor and Gamble products at the supermarket or drive almost any car, you have benefitted from equity financing. Take away the stock market and companies can't raise capital through equity because the equity can't be sold. That raises the cost of equity financing through the roof and so very few companies could use it. Without the stock market tons of products and services you rely on wouldnt exist. Liquid stock markets and equity ownership are one of the things that has made the United States into the world's biggest economy. The stock market is an enormous pile of our country's wealth and whether the stock market goes up or down is a really good indication about how we feel about allocating our capital to risky projects. If the stock market is down it means that wealth is down and that risk is being avoided. This has important implications for growth and the financial health of the country. Edit: "But on that premise, people are attempting to get money that they didn't work for themselves. I personally believe that I am not entitled to anything I didn't work to earn." is just silly in referenec to the stock market. You did earn it by providing them with capital that you earned previously and didnt spend. You are being rewarded for delayed consumption. Do you also refuse to earn interest on your bank account?

I agree with JoeyV that having the average person invest their money into a business allows the company to have more funds for expansion and growth as well as giving back to the small investor as a means of getting their saving to work for them. Look at retirement accounts where, over your working lifetime, you have given $50,000. Without the market and investment options, you would still have just $50,000. But with investing, you may have $500,000. (Current markets not-withstanding.) With Utility companies, the profits are given back to investors as dividends since the companies are already covering all possible growth areas. Investing and market forces are important to any economy and you would gain beneficial knowledge from learing about its history from Adam Smith's trading company to present.

If you don't care, why are you asking the question? If you make money in the stock market consistently, you will have learned something and you will have earned it. Show me an investment where you can get superior returns comparable to the stock market with little investment. The point of existence is to grow, expand, put more people to work, indemnify and grow a heritage in capitalism. That you don't care what spawned many billionaires, some of the greatest companies and the greatest stock exchange on earth just shows your ignorance, not justification for questioning it.

With enough study and patience, people can make lots of money in stocks. Not everyone is willing to do that, your're one of them.

"But on that premise, people are attempting to get money that they didn't work for themselves. I personally believe that I am not entitled to anything I didn't work to earn." When I put money in the bank, I get interest on the money. You might say I am getting money I am not entitled too. I think if I earned the money, I have a right to get some interest off it. If I take some of my hard earned money and save it and invest it in a diversified portfolio of stocks, and make some money off it, I see no problem with that. I worked hard to earn the money, and the money goes to build companies that provide people jobs and products that people want to buy. I think everyone should buy some stocks and make some money off it. "I do not have a pension plan." Well maybe you can work til you drop dead in your business. However a lot of us work in occupations where we get less good at it as well get older. We also develop arthritis which makes it hard to do hard labor. We need to have a retirement fund. Remember your original question was: "Why should anyone care whether the stock market is up, down, or even doesn't exist at all?" You didn't ask "Why should I care whether the stock market is up, down, or even doesn't exist at all?" We are saying why we care, not why you should care. "Life should be about a whole lot more than the amount of money someone can accumulate." You are creating a straw man argument. None of us said that the amount of money you can accumulate is all that counts. Lots of things are more important to me than the amount of money I can accumulate. However, It does make me sleep better at night knowing that I am accumulating enough money for my retirement and my kids college funds.

it basically affects the people who have invested money into the stock market. if it's down they are losing money and if it's up they are gaining money. Putting money into the stock market is like an investment. There are risks but you can also get a lot of money out of it. The point of it is for example: bob buys some stocks from Google and so that makes him part owner. Its so you can kind of see the companies value and success or failure.

People care because they invest their savings/retirement in the stock market (as well as the bond market, etc.). Stocks are a moderate risk, moderate return investment which returns a higher appreciation rate than bonds, t-bills or savings. Can people lose money in the stock market? Of course, but if you place your money in a money market fund or savings account, you also lose money (it's call inflation risk in which your earnings do not keep pace with inflation, so your buying power goes down). Stocks historically return 8% annually, about two to three times the historic inflation rate and as such, over the long term, coupled with a properly diversified portfolio (some bonds, etc.), are the best way to save for retirement (outside of finding an employer that provides a defined benefit pension plan).

I'm sorry to say, but you are very ignorant of how the economy functions. Companies sell stock in order to raise cash to build their business. Name any company whose products you buy - they would not be there without the stock market. No economy in the world would exist without the stock market. Do you have any sort of a pension plan? If you do, it is likely invested in the stock market, whether you like it or not. And as far as people making money they didn't earn, you don't have to hammer a nail or tighten a wrench to earn money. Investing (for the people who really take it seriously, not most of the nitwits on Yahoo Answers) is work - it is research and study.

Why should anyone care? Because what happens with the stock market influences what happens with the cost of food, gas, and everything else that we buy. If the stock market in the U.S. is affected negatively by some event like a terrorist attack, it goes like a wave around the globe. Each stock exchange that opens after that, opens lower. So suddenly your dollar is worth less, can buy less, and people get in a panic and stop buying things, which makes the economy slow down or come to a screeching halt. No money, no business. Companies cut back or close down altogether. That's what happened in 2008. The time will come when that "global economic crisis" happens and business is back to the bartering stage. Money won't be good for anything but starting a fire in your fireplace. Food or supplies is what you will have to trade with. A smart person won't invest in the stock market, commodities market, mutual funds or anything else that is dependent upon speculation about whether prices will go up or down, if supply or demand will go up or down. Put your money into real estate. Buy material things that will last and will keep you and your family safe, and provide for them when the rest of the world is going nuts and murdering each other for food. Buy a home in the country where you can grow your own food. Study the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that happened just after that. It took a world war to bring the U.S. out of the Great Depression.