Dividends are like hats. The company can let its stock go up in price. You can sell some, and buy a hat you like, cheap or expensive or none at all. Or the company can pick a single hat that they think will suit every shareholder, and mail the same hat to everybody whether they want it or not, without any consideration of the fit or cost.

Well put.
Statements like this will get you stoned as a heretic on many thousands of internet boards & yahoo videos. But you surely know that. ;-)

There are so many articles and youtube videos talking about the glories of getting $XX dividends a month and retiring on Dividend income.

Thank goodness shrewdm doesn't have any "Dividend" boards like TMF had. I can't count the number of times I got roasted on the old TMF "Dividend Growth Investing". And now in the comment sections of youtube videos.

So many people truly implicitly believe that dividends are free money. Even when they say "I know dividends are not free money" their actions say that they do believe so.

Anyway, your above statement sums it up better than I have ever seen. Added to my quotes file. Thanks.