this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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A lot of wealth is based on perceived/theoretical value. Most of it, in fact. Let's say you own a car or a house, their value is based on what someone else is willing to pay for them, but you can't know how much that would be before you do. Heck, even bank notes are technically just "worthless" IOU's backed by a government.
That doesn't mean your net worth is zero just because you don't have cash on hand.
Shares are (in reasonable sale quantities) more factual, because they are essentially based on buy offers: if you have one SpaceX share, you know it's currently worth exactly $160.13, because someone has offered to buy it for that amount.
And this is entirely ignoring the fact that you, like Musk, can turn the "perceived" value into "real" value extremely easily - it's called a loan. Musk got a cool $13 billion one back when he bought Twitter.