C. Bill,
Sorry for being so strident, I was in a mood. First, owning shares is indeed immoral in my opinion. Buy bonds. If you want something a little sexier, play the options market. At least there you know that if you win the swine who wrote you the option lost. There's no rising tide that lifts all capitalist boats in the options market. I haven't really analyzed the morality of the futures market, but I'll give it a provisional okay ;-)
Seriously, I think owning shares is a poisonous idea. It's one thing when people own shares in the business they work at (as you do, although one would like to see everyone in the company own equally) but the idea that people can be innocent capitalists because the stock market seems so divorced from reality is wrong. It's like being a landlord. I've never met a landlord who could retain his humanity after a couple years in the business. It inevitably corrupts people to profit that way.
peace