Chevy friend Hating on my Toy

Worth depends on lots of things. When you add GM's debt, that's what makes it worth so much less than Toyota. GM currently sells at <$1 per share whereas Toyota sells at >$70/share. Sure GM has a lot of assets, but they also have humongous debt. A company's total worth is the sum of it's shares (market captitalization) which should represent the worth of the company's assets plus it's potential to make a profit. If you wanted to buy all of GM, you would have to buy all of the shares (market cap). Tell him to go ask a broker if GM is equal to Toyota in company value. They'll laugh him out of the office.

As an example, say persons 1 and 2 made $100,000/year (equal income). Person 1 owned a house that was worth $700,000 but he owed $900,000 in total debt while person 2 owned a house worth $250,000 but it was free and clear. Who is worth more? Even though person 2's house is of lower value, they are much richer than person 1 because their debt is low. It doesn't matter if person 1 makes the same money as person 2 (GM sells within 40k cars as Toyota example).

He's comparing revenue, not worth or profits. That was the fatal mistake of the dot com bust. People ignored profits and focused on revenue (and the hope of future growth).