ABSTRACT
We can probably start a hundred year war on the subject of value, but we can shorten the dispute pretty quickly by realizing that value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Couched in dollars, the value of a gallon of water to a man stranded in the Gobi Desert is radically different from the value to a man sitting next to a tap in New York City. It’s the same with General Motors. Its true value (as a high-order abstraction) may be debatable, but its market valuation is obtainable in seconds. You may disagree violently with the market price but you can’t change it unless a lot of other investors agree with you, then your opinion has become the market consensus. You can always fight the tape, but you will rarely win. Clinging to absolute standards rather than accepting flexible and variable reality is an expensive lesson the market freely dispenses to participants and students.
