If a business executive fails, he or she will not be able to find employment as an executive, but will have to drop back as a worker. These are not the people behind companies, nor the people with the skill to create their own. Almost all of the time they will be funding people with skills much higher than their own. The people who should be valued are the ones with the skill to create new projects, not the fatcats with so much wealth they can afford to gamble with the shares of other companies. The investor has the capital, though, which is the key ingredient in taking an idea on paper into reality.
Capital is after-tax income.
Almost all investment comes from the masses, who chip in their savings to a big pool of savings, which is managed by people who seem to know how to assess risk better than the masses of ordinary people. As you are trying to sort all this out in your mind, Gareth, imagine yourself at a crossroads in your life. One path will take you in the direction of making the poor rich, the other will take you in the direction of making the rich poor. If you choose the latter path, I can't help you. If you choose the former path, I can, if you continue to join us in our Internet university.