> The stock market is exactly the same - middle class gambling.

Our entire society is based on being forced to gamble. If you don't invest your money in some capacity then inflation will eat you alive.

> You can dress it to as having a social purpose, but that's not why most people do it - they want the numbers to go up.

Too cynical. This disqualifies basically anything you can do with money. If you put it in a bank to get interest you are solidly into the not-gambling end of the scale. And I don't think an index fund is that much more to the gambling side.