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Comment by valzam | Hacker News Reader

However, Amazon never pays dividends. And you probably cannot really vote on anything with your stock either. So what's the point? There is an interesting article about Facebook with a similar opinion. Zuck owns the majority vote and they never pay dividends. What's the point of owning the stock?

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> What's the point of owning the stock?

to sell for capital gains when it is higher in the future. Dividends aren't the only way to generate a profit. And for a lot of high income earners, dividends are very tax inefficient as well.

There's a term for when everyone buys something just because you can sell it to someone else for more later.

It's called a bubble.

It's only a bubble if it busts. And stock does have value, and if the business it represents have growth, the equivalent value must also grow.

And in any case, if someone else feels that the stock is worth more, and thus pay more for it, what's the problem?

Yep but when our 401ks auto buy in there's a bit of a stop gap. Also I think the bigger reason is that with tech people expect a nonlinear impact. Amazon being the example. So not only revenue break even but market growth and new market opportunities.

The term of art is actually “greater fool theory”

Sounds exactly like Bitcoin!

Dividends are taxable while price appreciation doesn’t become taxable until you sell. Unless you need income, it’s more tax efficient to shareholders if the company reinvests free cashflow in continued growth.

The point is that (a buyer expects that) the value of the stock itself is increasing. Whether it pays dividends is not the pertinent question.

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