Victor Davis Hanson raises this question all the time. He is a champion of people who MAKE the real things we use every day. He questions the intrinsic value of anything that Silicon Valley produces. We can all live without the Internet, smart phones, and flat panel TVs.
It would be a lot harder to live without food, without houses, without roads, without health are, without cars and gasoline.
Yet the values of both companies and people both are out of whack. Blue collar people who make things are undervalued. Companies like EQT who deliver the gas we use to heat our homes and cook are undervalues. All high-tech firms are grossly overvalued.
Supply in relation to demand. Water is essential for life, yet it is cheap because there’s lots of it.