Hacker News
points by parineum 2 days ago | 0 comments
> there is no direct way to translate it to something more concrete.

There's an incredibly easy way to do that, sell it.

If Nvidia takes $20 of parts and sells it for $100, they created $80 of value. If we had VAT, that's what would be taxed (minus things like r and d but, for simplicity...).

[–] strobe 2 days ago
that definitely $80 of value for Nvidia added but does it really added something to whole system? if some physical goods moved from one company to another with generation of VAT, does it really add up to economy as whole or just one seller made bad decision and loosed some $, other gained few $ but overall balance of value just still same.
[–] parineum 1 day ago
> does it really add up to economy as whole

Yes.

I don't want to pick on you but this is a major pet peeve of mine. A lot of people view the economy as a fixed size of value. As a result, when someone is a millionaire, they consider that million dollars to be something extracted from others. That's a very Feudal view of economics. What's usually the case is that millionaire add a million dollars of value by creating a more valuable product from raw materials.

This example is an easy example. Before Nvidia, there was just a pile of silicon and copper worth $20. It doesn't take $80 to turn that thing into something that is worth $100. The value within the economy increased.

Most of economic activity is growth. There is economic activity that isn't growth, which is what rent-seeking is.

[–] strobe 1 day ago
I think it exactly what I'm trying to say. Current state is that GPUs that Nvidia produced are not really in use, they mostly stored in warehouses as is not enough power for them so while they has 'potential future value' it's not proven to be created as lot could happen, unlikely natural disaster or they just could loose in value as demand drops or competitor will came with cheaper option.
[–] skew-aberration 1 day ago
Yes, values are inherently speculative - the S&P is just measuring current market values though - something like the market consensus of the net present value (profits further in the future are treated as less valuable than profits today). As this consensus changes, the S&P goes up and down.