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The Great Crowdfunding Train Wreck of 2013
- mey 15y agoThe baseline scenario had another similar take. http://baselinescenario.com/2012/03/21/jobs-disaster-looms/ http://baselinescenario.com/2012/03/21/jobs-disaster-looms/ I disagree with both, are people going to scammed? Sure. Did Madoff scam a bunch of rich "intelligent" investors? Damn straight. I personally fall on the line of personal freedom with reasonable safety nets, to me that is, allowing micro-loans, but continuing social security.
- mirceagoia 15y agoI guess everything we do has collateral damages. The problem is how we minimize the damage without interfering too much. It's like the man on a wire kind of thing.
- anonymoushn 15y agoIt seems silly to be opposed to Ponzi schemes that affect only the wealthy investors who buy in, but in favor of Ponzi schemes that affect everyone who pays payroll tax.
- Drbble 15y agoSocial Security isn't a Ponzi scheme; it isn't even an investment scheme. It is a welfare program with a funding model loosely designed to resemble insurance. Your payroll tax today does not entitle you to any promised future benefit beyond "whatever the SSA and Congress decide to pay in the future." Contrast that to a pension plan, which is a defined benefit from the moment you start working.
- jarek 15y agoNitpicking, but a lot of pension plans these days are "defined contribution" rather than "defined benefit". You put in whatever amount monthly (the contribution), what you get out depends on how the plan does in the next 40 years.
- mirceagoia 15y agoThis is an analysis by a known startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. From my point of view, it's good to hear pro and against arguments, not just the pro.
- thrill 15y agoYet another person who wants to tell me I'm too stupid to decide what to do with my own property.
- mirceagoia 15y agoYet there are enough people who are "yelling" that the government did nothing to stop Madoff from doing what he did. That's why it is so hard to be in balance. How to please everybody?
- thrill 15y agoThere's no disputing that Madoff committed fraud - and he was prosecuted for it - and unless we want the government counting every penny we spend then there will continue to be fraud perpetrated till the heat death of the universe. All the whining about crowdfunding is telling people that they are disallowed to take any risk with their own property, but only for their own good of course. The laws against fraud do not go away because we've allowed adults to act a little more like they have some common sense. I have been the victim of fraud, and I spent two years pursuing the embezzler and collecting evidence out-of-county and testifying in federal court. The man ended up serving several years in federal prison for his actions. Oh, this was in a publicly traded company - you know - full of all those supposed protections. There will be fraud in the future, and there will be people who get away with it. It's always caveat emptor - but we prevent a lot of potential good trying in some misguided attempt to not let people act like the free men they supposedly are.
- Gormo 15y agoMy favorite Tacitus quote comes to mind: "The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise." Of course, the real winners when new systems of preemptive regulation are introduced aren't investors or entrepreneurs, but the regulators themselves, at everyone else's expense.
- Drbble 15y ago