The index-fund problem

I'll first clarify what this article is NOT, because some confusion is possible. This article is not an argument (for or against) about whether individual mutual fund investors should invest in index funds or ETFs. That's not the topic of this article at all. Investing in these passive funds is a decision that investors should take based on normal investing logic. We're talking about something different here. There's a new article in the American magazine 'The Atlantic', rather provocatively titled 'Could Index Funds Be 'Worse Than Marxism'?' Actually, that's a doubly provocative title because it will provoke two different kinds of people in two different ways but I'm bothered by only one of those. The idea behind the article is something that is seeing an increasing discussion amongst a diverse set of people who think about investing carefully. Some of these are academics, some are in