6 ms·

Essentially VC is subsidizing part of America's goods then. We could always skip the middlebusiness and just go straight to universal income paid for by these f

by FTA 9y ago

Essentially VC is subsidizing part of America's goods then. We could always skip the middlebusiness and just go straight to universal income paid for by these firms.

ebiester 9y ago
But universal income will be used by poor people to buy essentials that have low profit margins, rather than an addiction by wealthy people to high profit margin services.
noway421 9y ago
Ah truly Silicon Valley is at the bleeding edge of social benefit!
mason55 9y ago
Yes, Matt Yglesias once said Amazon is "a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers"
- michaelchisari 9y ago
  I really don't see the kind of aggressive growth plan and opportunities that Amazon chased after being pursued by many of these current startups. Amazon, Google, Facebook, they all quickly learned that their current model couldn't sustain their pie-in-the-sky valuations, so they pushed outwards in multiple directions. Blue Apron, as an example, doesn't seem to be doing that. And may not be capable of it. If they had a plan to use their valuation to purchase, automate and control the whole farm-to-table product chain, all while building up advanced technical services that can be sold to other tech companies and startups, that might be a different story. But I'm very skeptical that's the case.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    The biggest thing for me is that, if there really is a market for home delivery of fresh food (at least in urban areas)... And there certainly seems to be. There is in the UK and it's growing in the US even if some services like Instacart have their own profitability problems. Meal kits [from the same stores/services] are such an obvious expansion to that and they're already happening. Blue Apron and its dozen or more competitors just seem like such a niche [standalone] offering. I'm pretty darn close to their target demographic and they still don't quite fit my needs. Developing a platform to serve this market presupposes that it's a viable size of market to serve as standalone businesses and I'm not convinced it is.
- sah2ed 9y ago
  No. Bezos himself strongly disagreed with that characterization that he included that quote in his annual shareholder letter for 2013 [1]. Along with a rebuttal. "To me, trying to dole out improvements in a just-in-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align. " [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513151836/d511111dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513...
ableton 9y ago
I like the idea of getting free money every month, but it just wouldn't feel right to live on money that was forcefully taken from someone else, even if they do have a lot of it. Maybe somebody will invent some sort of sustainable voluntary UBI. That would be the best.
- lawrenceyan 9y ago
  Would you feel better if you were taking from a robot rather than a human? Because that's going to be the reality in about 10-15 years.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - gruez 9y ago
    >taking from a robot rather than a human ...which is owned by a human. not to mention the ambiguity between a tool and a robot. can we expect SaaS companies to be taxed because their servers are "robots"? that is not to say i'm against UBI, but the justification of "it's okay because we're taking it from robots!" doesn't hold.
    - conanbatt 9y ago
      It is the weirdest anthropomorphism to give robots a soul for the hope of being able to exploit them.
    - speedplane 9y ago
      I'm pretty confounded as to why UBI has become so popular. Many people already get a ton of social services from the government. Don't see how getting $20k of UBI per year is better than getting free medical care from Medicaid and subsidized housing from HUD, both which likely add up to the same amount. Don't see why UBI has to be in cash instead of services.
      - TeMPOraL 9y ago
erdle 9y ago
Just to be clear — most VCs are also getting universal basic income from LPs. Warren Buffet once said most hedge funds were compensation schemes disguised as investment vehicles. The same can be said for the average VC.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- skrebbel 9y ago
  > Just to be clear — most VCs are also getting universal basic income from LPs. Fancy definition of "universal" you got there.
beambot 9y ago
And post IPO, pension funds and 401k's crowd in, give the VCs liquidity... Thus completing the cycle and enabling the VCs to do it all over again.

by FTA 9y ago

Essentially VC is subsidizing part of America's goods then. We could always skip the middlebusiness and just go straight to universal income paid for by these firms.

ebiester 9y ago

But universal income will be used by poor people to buy essentials that have low profit margins, rather than an addiction by wealthy people to high profit margin services.

noway421 9y ago

Ah truly Silicon Valley is at the bleeding edge of social benefit!

mason55 9y ago

Yes, Matt Yglesias once said Amazon is "a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers"

michaelchisari 9y ago
I really don't see the kind of aggressive growth plan and opportunities that Amazon chased after being pursued by many of these current startups. Amazon, Google, Facebook, they all quickly learned that their current model couldn't sustain their pie-in-the-sky valuations, so they pushed outwards in multiple directions. Blue Apron, as an example, doesn't seem to be doing that. And may not be capable of it. If they had a plan to use their valuation to purchase, automate and control the whole farm-to-table product chain, all while building up advanced technical services that can be sold to other tech companies and startups, that might be a different story. But I'm very skeptical that's the case.
- ghaff 9y ago
  The biggest thing for me is that, if there really is a market for home delivery of fresh food (at least in urban areas)... And there certainly seems to be. There is in the UK and it's growing in the US even if some services like Instacart have their own profitability problems. Meal kits [from the same stores/services] are such an obvious expansion to that and they're already happening. Blue Apron and its dozen or more competitors just seem like such a niche [standalone] offering. I'm pretty darn close to their target demographic and they still don't quite fit my needs. Developing a platform to serve this market presupposes that it's a viable size of market to serve as standalone businesses and I'm not convinced it is.
sah2ed 9y ago
No. Bezos himself strongly disagreed with that characterization that he included that quote in his annual shareholder letter for 2013 [1]. Along with a rebuttal. "To me, trying to dole out improvements in a just-in-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align. " [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513151836/d511111dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312513...

ableton 9y ago

I like the idea of getting free money every month, but it just wouldn't feel right to live on money that was forcefully taken from someone else, even if they do have a lot of it. Maybe somebody will invent some sort of sustainable voluntary UBI. That would be the best.

lawrenceyan 9y ago
Would you feel better if you were taking from a robot rather than a human? Because that's going to be the reality in about 10-15 years.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- gruez 9y ago
  >taking from a robot rather than a human ...which is owned by a human. not to mention the ambiguity between a tool and a robot. can we expect SaaS companies to be taxed because their servers are "robots"? that is not to say i'm against UBI, but the justification of "it's okay because we're taking it from robots!" doesn't hold.
  - conanbatt 9y ago
    It is the weirdest anthropomorphism to give robots a soul for the hope of being able to exploit them.
  - speedplane 9y ago
    I'm pretty confounded as to why UBI has become so popular. Many people already get a ton of social services from the government. Don't see how getting $20k of UBI per year is better than getting free medical care from Medicaid and subsidized housing from HUD, both which likely add up to the same amount. Don't see why UBI has to be in cash instead of services.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago

erdle 9y ago

Just to be clear — most VCs are also getting universal basic income from LPs. Warren Buffet once said most hedge funds were compensation schemes disguised as investment vehicles. The same can be said for the average VC.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
skrebbel 9y ago
> Just to be clear — most VCs are also getting universal basic income from LPs. Fancy definition of "universal" you got there.

beambot 9y ago

And post IPO, pension funds and 401k's crowd in, give the VCs liquidity... Thus completing the cycle and enabling the VCs to do it all over again.