Are speculators respected in America?

Respected? I suppose it has to do with whom you speak. IMO, speculators play an important role in a free society. I find that the way that you couch your question very telling. On one hand, you talk about speculators as having an important role, and refer to great companies. Then you characterize these folks as "sharks".

A free society needs those people who are willing to take a chance. An economy never grew great from the work of plodders alone. As far as morality, as long as someone is not specifically out to damage someone else, I see no problem with speculation.

Answer yourself yourself, literarypoland, from the depths of your conscience.


Edit:
Sorry, Phoenix's answer somehow wasn't visible and I felt ignored. Then I wrote the above.
So as long as it's legal, it's accepted.

But does being a speculator automatically connect you with the Republican Party, with the rich?
A Democrat who speculates in property or land - isn't that a contradiction? At the same time this Democrat would speak on behalf of the poor.

Speculators often supply the start up capital for new ideas and businesses that would fail with insufficient capital input.

No real difference with real estate speculators. someone with capital to invest buys land that he thinks may appreciate markedly in value over a period in time. Here speculators are required to provide infrastructure such as roads power sewage etc and to have developments planned out on paper prior to selling. One thing that does worry me is the urban sprawl eventually we will not have enough arable land to grow the food we need to survive.