Does Index Trading Sabotage the Stock Market

I am interested in your opinions. Does Index Trading (i.e. futures, spy, qqq, dia, etc.) sabotage the stock market and/or individual stocks that should trade on their own individual merits?

What would life be like without index trading?

 

Index trading is neutral. It's virtually the same as buying and selling a "basket"..

 

Someone would invent index trading.

What other market instrument are you going to blame for a housing bubble, a credit binge and massive fraud ?

 

I don't think that is true because traders arbitrage the individual stocks against the index values.

 

The benefit to arbing is to lock in the price differential..

Do you think an arb could/would try to force one side to "widen the spread so he might lock it in"?