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> Should VC investment be subject to democratic vote? In an ideal world, yes, especially if those investments end up influencing the lives of millions/billions
by paganel 6y ago
> Should VC investment be subject to democratic vote?
In an ideal world, yes, especially if those investments end up influencing the lives of millions/billions afterwards.
- throwawaysea 6y agoWhy? Those with wealth have typically earned it by creating value for others and getting paid for it. That money is theirs to spend as they see fit. Why should society intervene and have a say in what they earned through voluntary transactions? That seems unjust and arbitrary to me. Moreover there is no reason to believe that a democratic process will produce better outcomes than alternative (technocratic?) processes. The public is poorly informed, manipulable, and their sentiments aren’t optimal.
- babesh 6y agoSo much for freedom. If another person isn’t hurting you by building a colony, why should you have a say? Sounds like a society based on jealousy and envy. If you want a colony, go advocate for more funding for NASA. The US government’s budget is in the trillions and up till now it deficit spends like crazy. That is far larger than the entire net worth of any of these billionaires. The real issue is that government and society now is too fractured and inefficient to actually execute on such a project and people just want to commandeer things instead.
- babesh 6y agoI swear to god, the future is here. We have the nincompoops of Atlas Shrugged combined with the doublespeak of 1984. Sad, sad world.
- paganel 6y ago> So much for freedom. If another person isn’t hurting you by building a colony, Who said anything about "non-hurting"? Going back to tech investments, I'm pretty sure that if we were to put the initial investments into companies like Facebook, Twitter or even Google up to vote ("do they deserve the money or not given their future influence on society?") the results would be pretty close, given how much they actually did hurt part of our society. The same goes for these "colonies", which are basically just another tech investment with the potential to influence the life of millions/billions in the future, potentially for the worst.
- babesh 6y agoYou still have not shown a single way these colonies hurt. They don’t exist yet. You just read hypotheticals from one side. It is also known as pre-crime. Here are some examples. Look at the Pilgrims. They left because of religious persecution. It doesn’t matter at all if they were or were not rich. Why should you have a say as to why they should not be able to leave?
- wruza 6y agoWhen you say colonies, my mind renders these dystopian plots when one guy builds a great community with tricky rules and then covertly abuses a whole next generation, because they grew up with it and most of them can’t see anything wrong or decide to quit. Thank god it’s only fiction and we don’t have that irl.