Let's talk about Tesla, which is basically the topic of the article. Tesla has never paid a dividend, and is unlikely to pay a dividend any time in the foreseea

Let's talk about Tesla, which is basically the topic of the article. Tesla has never paid a dividend, and is unlikely to pay a dividend any time in the foreseeable future, correct? So the entire value of TSLA now is speculation on the future price of TSLA. The shareholders are not actually extracting revenue from the company (which is currently operating at a loss), they just hope to extract revenue from future stock buyers. In effect, the actual cash management is largely irrelevant. All that matters is the perception of future stock buyers about the even farther future cash management of the company. Whereas when you buy a private company, the actual revenue the company makes after the sale does matter crucially. Unless you're just looking to "flip" the company. If you bought TSLA low and sold now, you could make a tidy profit even though Tesla itself never made a profit during the entire time you owned it.