Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

Re:Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 4... by ryandrake on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:11PM (#13330899)

I guess it depends on your definition of "creating economic value". If I buy something for $110 from someone who paid $100 for it, I guess you could argue that either you or I just "created" $10 of economic value. I don't subscribe to that. Value is only created when you improve something.

Buy a lump of gold for $100 and turn it into a $110 bracelet -> value created.

Buy a lump of gold for $100 and sell it to someone 1 second later for $110 -> no value created.

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Re:Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 4... by kgwgk on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:14PM (#13330930)

I didn't mention gold. I asked about two cash-flow generating assets that would be considered investments by most people (but of course you can have your own definition of investment).

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Re:Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 4... by ryandrake on Thursday January 05, 2017 @04:06PM (#13331394)

I'm more debating the definition of "value creation" rather than "investment". But admittedly I did conflate the two terms in an earlier response. I'd offer: not all investments, even the ones that provide monetary returns, do so by creating value.

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Re:Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 4... by kgwgk on Thursday January 05, 2017 @04:19PM (#13331504)

How do a business provide monetary return if not by creating value? A house also provides value (in the form of housing), why would anyone want to pay rents otherwise?

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