Why is buying stocks considered investing?

I don’t understand why investing in stocks in the secondary market is often considered investing, and why industry people/lobbyists act like it would actually benefit the respective company/economy.

Am I wrong?

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Buying a stock from a third party (i.e. your neighbor) doesn’t provide cash to the company. Owning that equity, and being able to sell it for a higher price in the future, benefits only you. Having a robust, liquid stock market allows for individual investors to be able to make decisions with large amounts of capital (see: velocity of money). 
 

Purchasing stock directly from a company, either in an IPO or a follow-on, provides a cash sum to the company (or sometimes underwriter, but let’s say company for sake of simplicity). This is obviously a good thing because then the company can reinvest the $ they’ve raised and you can earn interest on your equity stake. Equities become more valuable as the company performs better.

Not really sure what else is being asked.

 

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Even though you are buying a stock on the secondary market, you are directly supporting the company.

When you buy stock, you are bidding up the company’s valuation, or market cap. Whenever a company has a higher valuation, it can more effectively raise more capital (I.e., follow-on, secondary, private placement) which should help it take on greater NPV projects in theory.

 

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