[thrwyoilarticle]

The fact that there is wealth to extract implies that the ticket that allows you to control the extraction has value. The company has assets and the ticket gives you proportionate ownership of them and proportionate control of where they go.

>A house that burns down because of climate catastrophe is a real physical loss. A increase in the value of a house created by aggressive speculation is an imaginary gain that only exists because the people in the game believe in it.

And a house that is built creates real value by taking land, adding materials and labour, and creating something worth more than the sum of its parts.

I don't need to forgive all of the economic system's sins to explain why stocks have value.