The valuation doesn't have to do with handling as much cash as WalMart. The valuation has to do with this idea that Amazon will inevitably kill everything else

The valuation doesn't have to do with handling as much cash as WalMart. The valuation has to do with this idea that Amazon will inevitably kill everything else including WalMart and end up the only way anybody can buy things or do business. It sure as hell hasn't built this valuation on the back of dividends to shareholders. You are taking a ride on a collective fantasy that there can exist a company that kills all other companies and somehow inherits their business without obliterating society as we know it. Or, possibly, that there can be a cancer so big that it becomes the person and takes over doing everything that they do? It's definitely a fantasy. Not Amazon's intentions: they're absolutely out to do this wherever possible, and it colors the attitude of Amazonians and dovetails with the political reality of the USA as it currently stands. The fantasy part is that it doesn't end in tears. Eventually Amazon must stop growing, if for no other reason than society will collapse and there will be no more customers for them to service, as there won't be jobs at Amazon to support 'em and government welfare will not be able to give the jobless people enough money to continue to buy things from Amazon. That's already beginning to happen, but until then—there's a trillion dollar valuation, and the world of capital cries 'play on!'. Or you could try and convince Amazonians NOT to kill everything else? But I don't think that'll get far: it's their culture and, as I said, that's the only reason for the valuation. People assume Amazon will continue to win.