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What we have now is essentially feudalism except instead of titles (king, queen, prince, duke, earl, knight, bishop, ...) everyone is assigned some numbers (net

What we have now is essentially feudalism except instead of titles (king, queen, prince, duke, earl, knight, bishop, ...) everyone is assigned some numbers (net worth, salary). The numbers of lower ranking people are decided by higher ranking people and can be overruled only by even higher ranking people. Instead of rank being determined based on proximity to the king, it is determined based on proximity to politicians and the money printers. All narratives about the self-made founder are complete BS. There is no meritocracy at all. That's why privilege is such a big topic nowadays except where the narrative is wrong is that it's not only about race. It's about proximity to the politicians and the money printers. Proximity to the centers of power is the only thing that counts. Successful entrepreneurs are not value creators, they are not contributors to society, they're just glorified courtesans whom, with the approval of their masters, are granted bigger numbers in exchange for loyalty and compliance. Value creation is a thing of the past. It does not get rewarded anymore. The entrepreneur of 50 years ago has nothing to do with the modern entrepreneur. They are completely different. The system we have today is feudalism but it markets itself as capitalism in order to onboard people. There is no free market. Central banks and their courtesans pump money into the system to decide all the prices from the top down. They can point the printer in any direction and that's where the entire global economy will go.

55555 5y ago
I upvoted you for an interesting analogy which certainly does hold significant truth. But you're actually arguing that the percent of entrepreneurs who are rent-seeking has actually increased over the past 50 years? I really doubt this is true. I especially doubt it over the past few hundred years. At least on that scale, the world seems to be getting more meritocratic, not less. But heck, I don't really know. You certainly have a point. It's hard to not "make millions" when you're best friends with a top VC, kleptocrat, or even any politician. Read any book about the third world, or any allegations in the first world, and this becomes obvious. But there does seem to be a lot of meritocracy/business opportunities left for the rest of us. Have you ever started a business? Perhaps a healthier way to look at this is that, if you really wanted to, you could network your way up there. Because even taking your worldview as truth, you certainly can.
- cryptica 5y ago
  Yes I started many businesses. My personal experience matches my comment exactly. All the ventures where I created value didn't earn me anything, even though one of these ventures was very popular. I only started to earn passive income after I became laser-focused on making money and playing internal politics (I got involved in cryptocurrency). But even then, I could see people who were truly 'crony' succeed by producing even less value. Some people in my cryptocurrency community earn twice as much as I do and they produced absolutely nothing. On the other hand me and my team produced a lot of useful tools which would make waves if people knew about them but the project founders don't promote them. They pretend that me and my team don't exist. Not only did we get 0 funding from project founders in spite of constantly delivering quality products, the founders gave funding to blatant scam projects instead of us; almost as if to rub it in my face. The whole story is long and disturbing. Those people in my crypto community who have been following us closely are quite surprised about how we're being treated. Someone from community was so disillusioned by the situation, they donated $20k of crypto to me before quitting the project (yes someone felt so bad about my situation that they gave me $20k for free). At least it's all playing out in a very public way so I don't feel so alone. It's just very awkward. We also tried applying to various incubators and reaching out to investors (some outside of cryptocurrency space). Sometimes they seem excited about our project but they alway seem to back out at the last minute for seemingly no reason. It feels as if I'm blacklisted and the tech elite all talk among themselves to decide who to give funding to. Our team has a great track record in spite of never receiving any funding from any major investor so it doesn't make sense why investors are treating us so badly and it feels so coordinated. I used to get more opportunities in the past even though I was far less talented and than I am now and had very little track record. I think the problem is my online activism. I suspect all my online comments are liked back to my real identity somehow.
  - ta988 5y ago
    Maybe they are scared by your track record and the fact that nobody funded you for it? If you ever complain once to founders about "others not funding us despite quality <product>" they may be scared away as well.

55555 5y ago

I upvoted you for an interesting analogy which certainly does hold significant truth. But you're actually arguing that the percent of entrepreneurs who are rent-seeking has actually increased over the past 50 years? I really doubt this is true. I especially doubt it over the past few hundred years. At least on that scale, the world seems to be getting more meritocratic, not less. But heck, I don't really know. You certainly have a point. It's hard to not "make millions" when you're best friends with a top VC, kleptocrat, or even any politician. Read any book about the third world, or any allegations in the first world, and this becomes obvious. But there does seem to be a lot of meritocracy/business opportunities left for the rest of us. Have you ever started a business? Perhaps a healthier way to look at this is that, if you really wanted to, you could network your way up there. Because even taking your worldview as truth, you certainly can.

cryptica 5y ago
Yes I started many businesses. My personal experience matches my comment exactly. All the ventures where I created value didn't earn me anything, even though one of these ventures was very popular. I only started to earn passive income after I became laser-focused on making money and playing internal politics (I got involved in cryptocurrency). But even then, I could see people who were truly 'crony' succeed by producing even less value. Some people in my cryptocurrency community earn twice as much as I do and they produced absolutely nothing. On the other hand me and my team produced a lot of useful tools which would make waves if people knew about them but the project founders don't promote them. They pretend that me and my team don't exist. Not only did we get 0 funding from project founders in spite of constantly delivering quality products, the founders gave funding to blatant scam projects instead of us; almost as if to rub it in my face. The whole story is long and disturbing. Those people in my crypto community who have been following us closely are quite surprised about how we're being treated. Someone from community was so disillusioned by the situation, they donated $20k of crypto to me before quitting the project (yes someone felt so bad about my situation that they gave me $20k for free). At least it's all playing out in a very public way so I don't feel so alone. It's just very awkward. We also tried applying to various incubators and reaching out to investors (some outside of cryptocurrency space). Sometimes they seem excited about our project but they alway seem to back out at the last minute for seemingly no reason. It feels as if I'm blacklisted and the tech elite all talk among themselves to decide who to give funding to. Our team has a great track record in spite of never receiving any funding from any major investor so it doesn't make sense why investors are treating us so badly and it feels so coordinated. I used to get more opportunities in the past even though I was far less talented and than I am now and had very little track record. I think the problem is my online activism. I suspect all my online comments are liked back to my real identity somehow.
- ta988 5y ago
  Maybe they are scared by your track record and the fact that nobody funded you for it? If you ever complain once to founders about "others not funding us despite quality <product>" they may be scared away as well.