[syllogism]

Dividends can underwrite the value even if never issued, the same way a government guarantee can make debt 0-risk even if the guarantee is never exercised. Contrast with a "tulip economy", like bitcoin, where there is no intrinsic value — only investor sentiment/expectation. Bitcoin and gold are worth money because you expect others to expect others to expect etc it to continue to be worth money. Time-discounted expected future dividends act as shared knowledge: everyone knows that if the price dropped below a certain point, the company can start issuing dividends and the price would immediately recover. Because everyone knows that, the price never has to drop that far, and it's never necessary.