I’m convinced that middle-class individuals, families, and small businesses still have wealth that they would like to invest, but they’re “twice bitten, thrice shy.” More than a few small investors have multiple Wall Street “bite” marks to show for their trust in the market.

Who can be blamed for mattress stuffing instead of stuffing more money into Wall Street? Who can be blamed for taking oneself out of the game to watch from a bench on the sidelines as Wall Street grapples with over-valued equities, yo-yo Dows, credit problems, Tech Bubble II, and a S&P that’s again showing bottom-feeding tendencies.

No matter how guilty inactive, “self-sidelined”, investors are made to feel for not “getting back in the game,” they steadfastly refuse to disregard personal safety by throwing their money into the Stock Pot . Appeals to their patriotism don’t move them. They seem deaf to appeals to help the economy or to show their support for The Street. But what can they expect from The Street? How has expectancy previously met with reality? What does Main Street have to show for cozying up to Wall Street?

Moms, Pops, and other small investors may be relentlessly propagandized with market slobber from the lips of Talking Heads, but, they haven’t been deprived of their senses. Sensible people realize they can’t simply place their chips on The Big Roulette Wheel in New York City, and walk away, trusting a puppeteer market to make them rich.

The question is not, “What is Wall Street do to win twice-shy investors back?” but, rather, “What can Wall Street do to make investors feel fairly treated? The follow-up question is, “What will Wall Street do?”

Firms on, and close to, Wall Street control much of the mainstream media, but, there is still enough freedom on the Internet (and in the movies) for prudent investors to be aware of Wall Street culture, its predatory attitude toward investors, and the voracious shenanigans that go on behind the corporate logos. Wall Street may have steady Drip Lines from the Treasury’s ESF, and from the various spigots controlled by the Fed, but its pulse grows faint when the Sheep decline the invitation to the abattoir.