[jmyeet]

My point is more fundamental than anticipating market mispricing within a certain set of constraints.

How does a company make money? Why does it distribute that money to shareholders? Why can't someone working at the company just keep all the money? Why can't the bank just confiscate it?

The answer at all levels is the the threat of violence. Property rights (eg to the money) are enforced by the threat of state-sanctioend violence, for example the police showing up at your house and throwing you in jail if you don't comply with laws.

So why would the police show up and do that? Why would the courts enforce those laws? It's not just the threat of violence, essentially. It's the collective belief in that system.

[kgwgk]

Why stop there? What makes an asset exist at all if not someone’s belief? Persistence is not a physical property as much as a phenomenon of perception. We believe that what we see is what we saw - and we believe that who we are is who we were. Etc.