[jordanb]

I was not advocating for or against stock buybacks (I have opinions but they're not relevant).

I was just pointing out that you were in error by lumping stock buybacks with dividends and contrasting both to "earnings coming from gains in stock value." Stock buybacks work by causing gains in stock value.

[legitster]

I'm contrasting it to corporations that never do buybacks so the only way you make money off of their stock as an investor is purely through infinite speculation.