Are index-funds hurting the economy?

Couldn't you make your argument more general and say any giant corporation and any entity holding massive wealth is inherently bad for an economy?

It would be better for the average citizen if all of the wealth was used to create new jobs or raise wages. It would be better for the average citizen if all businesses were small businesses and everything was owned and operated locally.

Imagine what good could be done with the ocean of cash Apple and so many others are sitting on. I don't even mean just redistributing the wealth either. Imagine if Apple started a restaurant chain that was a huge money sink and wasn't profitable, but it created many thousands of jobs and interacted with our economy with all it has to buy and sell. Cash sitting in bank accounts doesn't do much for the health of the economy, but who cares about that when they can watch numbers on their bank accounts go up.

That won't ever, ever happen, of course.

/r/investing Thread