Vanguard notoriously calls mid-caps "small," e.g., VB. Anyway, they're not the ones who select S&P500 index components. I love Vanguard, but this is one case where they're kind of off-base.
Vanguard tracks the index. The index are US large caps. In this case OP is right and vanguard is wrong. You should do a little research before you display such ignorance.
Like, find a company in the S&P 500[0] that is not an American company? A company named, oh I dunno, Linde plc, which trades as $LIN and was founded in Germany[1] and currently has its headquarters in the UK?
So on the technical merits, what I said was correct, the S&P 500 does indeed have non-US stocks. Further, on the general thrust of my point, that the S&P 500 has exposure to international markets, that also holds true, something like 71% US and 29% international based on some cursory research [2].
But please, continue to lecture me on my ignorance. :)
Who said anything about blind or tradition? That seems like stuff you injected into this convo, not me.
I trust institutions who have a strong track record of predictiveness and desirable outcomes. Vanguard has both in spades, and has earned their authority. If they stop accurately predicting future behavior and/or stop producing desirable outcomes, that will change their authority on matters of investing.
Not trusting predictiveness and desirable outcomes seems prone to bias. If your alternative is that you only trust yourself, that seems like both a paranoid and privileged outlook, given how much time and how many resources you'd need to expend to gain even half of the knowledge Vanguard as an institution has about operating as an investment advisor.
