But of course, holding a stock certificate requires precious little exertion. We think of wealth flowing to stockholders as the natural law of the free market. It's really the law of the corporation. In a free market, everyone scrambles to get what they can, and keeps what they earn. In the construct of the corporation, one group gets what another earns.
Employees do the work.
But it is very real wealth that is funneled off. What an extraordinary word. One is tempted to recall Lycophron's comment, during an early Athenian movement against slavery.