Assets like real estate, stocks, and cryptocurrencies are treated primarily as vehicles for investment and profit maximization, rather than for their use values. This focus on increasing return on capital drives speculative investment, inflating asset prices beyond their real economic value and contributing to the formation of bubbles.

The extractive nature of investment practices that prioritize short-term gains over long-term sustainability can lead to asset bubbles. This approach encourages over-exploitation of financial, natural, and human resources, pushing for maximum yield without regard to the systemic risks or the long-term impacts on economic stability and environmental sustainability.

Property owners and investors have significant rights to manage and profit from their assets with limited responsibility for the broader economic or social impacts of their decisions. This can lead to aggressive speculation and risk-taking, secure in the knowledge that profits are privatized while many of the negative consequences are socialized or borne by other parties, including taxpayers, smaller investors, and the public at large.