Separating out the concepts of value vs price is key. Changes in the value of the dollar changes the dollar-price of stocks but not their value.
With respect to the OP claims regarding equity gains being the same thing as profitability I was merely pointing out that you need a point of reference when calculating profitability. In the case above the 'point of reference' for profitability was outside the system, ie: dollars or or other goods. In this particular instance the profit and loss is obscured by price fluctuations. This is very similar to how many people think they are earning a profit in the stock market, paying taxes on a profit, but in reality are losing value to inflation. Without a stable reference point profitability is hard to calculate.
Another example of how profitability is hard to calculate is with Bitcoin mining rigs. Suppose you paid $1000 for the rig and over the course of its life it mined 4 BTC which are now worth $2000. Was this a profitable move or did they take a loss? If BTC was $100 when they bought the rig then they could have purchased 10 BTC and the result is that instead of a 2x gain they had a 60% loss. Why should we use BTC vs dollars for measuring ROI? Because your income is in BTC so you need to measure your expenses in terms of BTC.
A DAC has its income in the form of transaction fees measured in shares, so its expenses and profit should also be accounted for in shares. This kind of accounting is measuring profitability entirely independent of any outside forces. It factors out everything that is irrelevant and focuses on one simple question, "all else being equal, do I own more or less percent of the DAC".
Inflation (defined as an increase in the money supply) does not solely determine the value of the dollar but it does contribute to it. The value of the dollar is based upon supply and demand like everything else and thus increasing demand for the dollar could result in falling prices even as there is monetary inflation. So conventional economists would be running around claiming the sky is falling due to 'deflation' (defined as falling prices) even though Austrian economists will be warning of the dangers of 'inflation' (increasing money supply) which is misallocating resources.
So before you start throwing around claims like 'practical economies is so painfully missing' I would suggest you hang out a bit and ask some harder questions.
Now was that hard? Instead of doing
to an obvious flawed argument which mixed inflation and valuation together wasn't really helpful. It did put a doubt in my mind whether you actually understood obvious price ramifications vis-a-vis valuation vs inflation. In a similar way, BTC/USD price climbing - was it due to inflation or was it due to value increase of BTC (or future valuation potential) or was it USD falling in value ? There is no way to tell, is it? Though from a finite point of view it might seem increase in BTC valuation might be same as USD valuation decreasing, it certainly is not. Now you might argue it does produce same result, there is an underlying cause which is different.
If you do understand valuation then its fine by me.
That said, inflation is defined as "defined as an increase in the money supply"? Are you again being serious now? It is not so simple...inflation is - "Inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time" (yeah from wiki). What this means is in true terms inflation can be onset by say increasing oil prices too and it has done in the past. So lets stick to conventional definitions instead of singularly expressed definitions.
Though what I said was directed at the Count and not at you; I see you have taken it pretty offensive. So let me clarify, I own over 5k in PTS and donated around 2 BTC in AGS so been here long. I have my doubts regarding BTS - specially the pricing -- it is still an experiment for me , I don't have many "hard questions" cause if it works, its great, if it doesn't then meh! I have already written down the expenses (yeah I have made loads on earning a profit in the stock market, paying taxes on a profit
)