4 ms·

You made a bunch of normative statements about what people "need" to do, so I don't think it's out of bounds to make a normative comment about the reasonablenes

You made a bunch of normative statements about what people "need" to do, so I don't think it's out of bounds to make a normative comment about the reasonableness of your demands. >What do you think is fundamentally wrong with such a view, other than that it isn't the way things currently are? For one, it dramatically increases the capital requirements for starting a new business. Such capital is likely not going to be available to new restaurants or other service oriented small businesses with no real collateral. Or it would come at such a high cost that it would be unprofitable to run the restaurant. All to optimize for a once in a century event. I think the world where the government backstops these businesses is just a better world than the one that would arise from what you envision. It has more of what I want and less of what I don't.

alexashka 6y ago
> You made a bunch of normative statements about what people "need" to do, so I don't think it's out of bounds to make a normative comment about the reasonableness of your demands. Did I? There is a single sentence with the word 'need' in it in my entire post. My last sentence expresses my hope for others' behaviour. That's two 'normative' statements that really express the same point - we are living in a consumerist culture. I don't think that's at all a controversial position, it is almost a cliche at this point. I also haven't made a single demand upon anyone. I'm not sure what motivates you to misrepresent my position in such crude fashion and I wish you'd refrain from replying to me in this manner in the future. > it dramatically increases the capital requirements for starting a new business. Help me understand - you think the approach of being responsible and saving for a rainy day, dramatically increases the capital requirements for starting a new business? How? How does saving profits relate to upstart requirements? As far as I can tell - the two are unrelated.
- tempestn 6y ago
  OK, so you're saying you don't need to have rainy day funds at the start of a new business, but should build them up over time, right? So, that leads to two potential situations. Let's use the restaurant example. First possibility is the one most restaurants face. If they're lucky and the business is actually viable, they will have a profit margin of 3-5%. For a single location restaurant, that profit will be enough for the proprietor to make a decent living hopefully, but not a whole lot more. Should be enough for them to save up a few months of personal expenses sure. But saving up enough cash to pay rent, suppliers, and staff, for months, with no income... would take forever with those margins. It's just not possible for most businesses of that sort. But let's also look at the other possibility. Say you've got a real hit restaurant (or another type of business with larger margins) and your margins aren't 3-5, but 15-20%. Now you're saving real money. So yes, you could sock it away under the proverbial mattress. But if you're that successful, it means people really value the product you're providing. Instead of hoarding your profits in case of a pandemic, you could instead invest those profits into opening a second location, allowing twice as many people to benefit from the service you're providing. In the 99% of years when there isn't a black swan event, that option is better not only for the business owner, but for society as a whole. So even for very successful businesses that could afford to keep a large amount of cash around, we're usually better off if they spend that money to do more of what's making them successful in the first place. Of course occasionally there will indeed be a pandemic, at which point government can help out to prevent both types of businesses from failing, so that when the event passes they can go back to generating value.

alexashka 6y ago

> You made a bunch of normative statements about what people "need" to do, so I don't think it's out of bounds to make a normative comment about the reasonableness of your demands. Did I? There is a single sentence with the word 'need' in it in my entire post. My last sentence expresses my hope for others' behaviour. That's two 'normative' statements that really express the same point - we are living in a consumerist culture. I don't think that's at all a controversial position, it is almost a cliche at this point. I also haven't made a single demand upon anyone. I'm not sure what motivates you to misrepresent my position in such crude fashion and I wish you'd refrain from replying to me in this manner in the future. > it dramatically increases the capital requirements for starting a new business. Help me understand - you think the approach of being responsible and saving for a rainy day, dramatically increases the capital requirements for starting a new business? How? How does saving profits relate to upstart requirements? As far as I can tell - the two are unrelated.

tempestn 6y ago
OK, so you're saying you don't need to have rainy day funds at the start of a new business, but should build them up over time, right? So, that leads to two potential situations. Let's use the restaurant example. First possibility is the one most restaurants face. If they're lucky and the business is actually viable, they will have a profit margin of 3-5%. For a single location restaurant, that profit will be enough for the proprietor to make a decent living hopefully, but not a whole lot more. Should be enough for them to save up a few months of personal expenses sure. But saving up enough cash to pay rent, suppliers, and staff, for months, with no income... would take forever with those margins. It's just not possible for most businesses of that sort. But let's also look at the other possibility. Say you've got a real hit restaurant (or another type of business with larger margins) and your margins aren't 3-5, but 15-20%. Now you're saving real money. So yes, you could sock it away under the proverbial mattress. But if you're that successful, it means people really value the product you're providing. Instead of hoarding your profits in case of a pandemic, you could instead invest those profits into opening a second location, allowing twice as many people to benefit from the service you're providing. In the 99% of years when there isn't a black swan event, that option is better not only for the business owner, but for society as a whole. So even for very successful businesses that could afford to keep a large amount of cash around, we're usually better off if they spend that money to do more of what's making them successful in the first place. Of course occasionally there will indeed be a pandemic, at which point government can help out to prevent both types of businesses from failing, so that when the event passes they can go back to generating value.