> when you receive dividends, you have provided something of value to the company (capital). Without your money, the company wouldn’t be able to generate that revenue.
No, for the absolute majority of stock and stockholders that's not true. You only provide capital to the company when you buy stock in an IPO. Otherwise, the money you paid -- usually much more than the company received in the IPO, which could have been a century or more ago -- went to the previous owner of the stock, who sold it to you.
> When you steal fish, you are providing absolutely no value.
As I understood the parable, carrying fish to market for the more hard-working fishermen was the protagonist's cushy sinecure of a job.
No, for the absolute majority of stock and stockholders that's not true. You only provide capital to the company when you buy stock in an IPO. Otherwise, the money you paid -- usually much more than the company received in the IPO, which could have been a century or more ago -- went to the previous owner of the stock, who sold it to you.
> When you steal fish, you are providing absolutely no value.
As I understood the parable, carrying fish to market for the more hard-working fishermen was the protagonist's cushy sinecure of a job.