What that means tangibly varies from business to business.
You might get a cut of the profits in the form of dividends... unless you don't. Plenty of stocks never pay dividends. A lot of companies pay more to charity than to dividends to investors.
Or, you get a vote on company policy at the stockholder's meeting... But if the founders own more than half the stock, that doesn't actually matter. And that's assuming the founders haven't just sold stock with no voting privileges.
If the company files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, stock owners are entitled to company assets... And almost never see any, because they're last in line behind every other creditor.
So it's unclear what, precisely, the practical weight of "partial ownership in a real business" has in general. In specific, sure; stock could be access to dividends or a meaningful voice in company policy. For a lot of stock, the only real value is "How much will someone else pay me for this piece of the action?"
You might get a cut of the profits in the form of dividends... unless you don't. Plenty of stocks never pay dividends. A lot of companies pay more to charity than to dividends to investors.
Or, you get a vote on company policy at the stockholder's meeting... But if the founders own more than half the stock, that doesn't actually matter. And that's assuming the founders haven't just sold stock with no voting privileges.
If the company files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, stock owners are entitled to company assets... And almost never see any, because they're last in line behind every other creditor.
So it's unclear what, precisely, the practical weight of "partial ownership in a real business" has in general. In specific, sure; stock could be access to dividends or a meaningful voice in company policy. For a lot of stock, the only real value is "How much will someone else pay me for this piece of the action?"