6 ms·

"How much value are you assigning to the risk the founder and investors are taking?" Absolutely 0, because they're not the ones doing the work.

• gozur88 10y ago
  Really? You think people should risk their money without compensation? Where can I find such people? And what makes showing up at the office and typing on a keyboard such a holy use of time that it alone deserves compensation?
  • andrepd 10y ago
    I know what you mean. It's the current system that's messed up, that just by holding money you can create money. It generates all kinds of fucked up inequalities.
    • gozur88 10y ago
      You can't create money by holding money. You create money by risking money. There's a huge difference between the two.
      • johnnyhillbilly 10y ago
        You create money by borrowing. You win money by risking money(). You earn money by being useful in what you do. ) In Icelandic, "win" means "work".
        • zaroth 10y ago
          This is pleasingly precise, but besides the point.
    • thinkloop 10y ago
      Holding money generates nothing, you have to at minimum risk it in a savings account or the index, or for real gains, playing roulette on a start-up.
      • SubiculumCode 10y ago
        Yes there is risk...but so much investment is made by those that can afford to risk it..that is the risk of losing the investment is not losing your home and car or being thrown to the street. If risk is defined by surplus money alone then yes, investors take risks, but if you define risk as the chance of losing your livelihood and basic needs? Typing on a keyboard entails more risk. When the poor takes an investment risk of $1000 they risk more than some elite putting up $1000.
        • zaroth 10y ago
          No, it's the money itself which is risked. Everything else is adjacent. How much the specific individual holding the money actually values it is irrelevant. It's how much that you value the money that's relevant. What is $1,000 worth to you? Now, that question has a wide range of answers. In some places, that's literally worth multiple lives. Or it could be beyond insignificant. Obviously very few can or should take a personal investment risk of 100% or more of their net worth.
          • SubiculumCode 10y ago
            You are arbitrarily limiting the scope of risk to a unit of account without regard to what those units of account do or do not afford one in the world. That is too limited a definition to be useful IRL.
            • zaroth 10y ago
              What I was trying to get at is that the value of money is both absolutely consistent (unit of account) but also completely situational ($10 can save a life). At the same time, the IRR of investing on public markets, like an index fund tracking the S&P 500, is exactly the same for everyone, and anyone can invest 10% of their net worth, whether that is $1,000 or $10,000,000. The original comment was that holding money generates nothing, you have to risk it, and I completely agree. You can risk 20% of your net worth and you're not risking your livelihood, and odds are in ~8 years your investment will have doubled, and your net worth increased by 20%. For some people that's a thousand dollars, others it's ten million. If you want to double your net worth in less than 30 years, you're going to have to risk a lot more. Everyone has access to the same returns on the public market (and we restrict access to private markets for very good reasons). So it's a literal definition of risk, and as a percentage of net worth it works well. The problem of massive wealth inequality to me is completely adjacent to risking capital in return for investment returns.
  • st3v3r 10y ago
    I do not believe that you shouldn't get any compensation, but the idea that simply having money entitles you to the lion's share of the compensation, above and beyond those that actually do the damn work, is idiotic. "And what makes showing up at the office and typing on a keyboard such a holy use of time that it alone deserves compensation?" The fact that it actually makes the damn product.
    • gozur88 10y ago
      ... so does the money. There's no keyboard typing without the money.