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It really feels like a scaling problem than anything else. It big companies go to shit as they do most of the time it's because tackling scale is a extremely di

It really feels like a scaling problem than anything else. It big companies go to shit as they do most of the time it's because tackling scale is a extremely difficult problem

lenerdenator 3y ago
They have to scale, and they don't see it as a problem. Like the author says, at a certain point, you've saturated the market. Everyone who wanted M2 Macbook Pro has one, but still, the institutional shareholders come knocking, demanding more money so that retirees can move into that villa on the golf course in Florida and consume until the dementia sets in. So what do you do to keep the shareholder returns coming? You expand into new markets, or create new markets, or create new products. Thus, you grow in scale. Again, to them, this is not a problem. Most of the people involved in the actual workings of this system - executives, fund managers, financiers, etc. - are getting more money out of it than they could ever hope to spend in a lifetime. There is no downside the system produces that their wealth cannot overcome. The rest of us... well... we're annuities.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  > demanding more money so that retirees can move into that villa on the golf course in Florida and consume until the dementia sets in. There are also the taxpayers that need the government pension funds to make good on investment assumptions, lest taxes have to go up. Edit: Politician A: I will remove all deferred compensation schemes, but have to increase taxes to pay the employees with money today Politician B: I will pay the employees with deferred compensation, and keep taxes lower than politician A, and let future taxpayers deal with any problems of underfunding and corruption Politician B wins every election.
  - lenerdenator 3y ago
    And politicians who keep making promises about a solvent pension fund because it's not fun for them if it's not solvent, and unions/retirees are much better at voting than the average person.

It really feels like a scaling problem than anything else. It big companies go to shit as they do most of the time it's because tackling scale is a extremely difficult problem

lenerdenator 3y ago

They have to scale, and they don't see it as a problem. Like the author says, at a certain point, you've saturated the market. Everyone who wanted M2 Macbook Pro has one, but still, the institutional shareholders come knocking, demanding more money so that retirees can move into that villa on the golf course in Florida and consume until the dementia sets in. So what do you do to keep the shareholder returns coming? You expand into new markets, or create new markets, or create new products. Thus, you grow in scale. Again, to them, this is not a problem. Most of the people involved in the actual workings of this system - executives, fund managers, financiers, etc. - are getting more money out of it than they could ever hope to spend in a lifetime. There is no downside the system produces that their wealth cannot overcome. The rest of us... well... we're annuities.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
> demanding more money so that retirees can move into that villa on the golf course in Florida and consume until the dementia sets in. There are also the taxpayers that need the government pension funds to make good on investment assumptions, lest taxes have to go up. Edit: Politician A: I will remove all deferred compensation schemes, but have to increase taxes to pay the employees with money today Politician B: I will pay the employees with deferred compensation, and keep taxes lower than politician A, and let future taxpayers deal with any problems of underfunding and corruption Politician B wins every election.
- lenerdenator 3y ago
  And politicians who keep making promises about a solvent pension fund because it's not fun for them if it's not solvent, and unions/retirees are much better at voting than the average person.