Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, chairman, chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of Meta Inc. / Wikimedia Commons
There was much schadenfreude among financial journalists this week after Facebook’s holding company’s share price dropped by 26%.
“Zuckerberg loses $29bn in a day,” yelled one headline which went on to say: “Mark Zuckerberg lost $29-billion in net worth in a single day. Disappointing earnings forecasts saw Meta stock plunge $200-billion on Thursday, the largest single-day market value wipeout for a US company. Zuckberg (sic) is now worth a paltry $85-billion. Barely enough to keep the yachts afloat, really...”
Zuckerberg has “lost” nothing.
If property prices in your neighbourhood drop for whatever reason, you haven’t “lost” money. It’s still the same house that you live in and your day to day existence is unaffected. What has changed is how much people would be willing to pay you should you choose to sell and should they choose to buy. If you, like me, have no intention of selling up and moving, whether values go up or down doesn’t matter.
It's a difficult concept to explain to these numbnuts in the financial media who offer advice to the masses while most of them don’t have a pot to piss in themselves.
