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That's all very generous. Who actually needs greater than 90% of the startups coming out of Silicon Valley and the surrounding areas? Their products just get hy

by bmitc 2y ago

That's all very generous. Who actually needs greater than 90% of the startups coming out of Silicon Valley and the surrounding areas? Their products just get hyped up and shoved down peoples' throat. And you're wrong. These people do have cash vaults, but they're other peoples' cash vaults. How else do you think they buy things? And they're living in their multi-million dollar mansions and yachts out of benevolence? Please.

benreesman 2y ago
[flagged]
- laserlight 2y ago
  > Do look up who Walter Bright is Stupid arguments are stupid, regardless of who said them. And, success doesn't make one right.
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    > Stupid arguments are stupid, regardless of who said them Indubitably true. Yet I am one of those rarefied people who make bright arguments.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- JimBright 2y ago
  HIKARU SULU: "You try to cross brains with Walter, he'll cut you to pieces every time." - from The Corbomite Maneuver
- bmitc 2y ago
  None of that has anything to do with anything. A person can be wrong, no matter who they are. Saying the wealthy don't have cash vaults and instead invest it in society is explicitly and intentionally manipulative of the real situation. And it's just wrong.
WalterBright 2y ago
Unfortunately, history provides us with examples of societies that confiscated the wealth of the wealthy, and even exterminated them, in their quest to make a utopia. They all ended up as hell-holes. I'm not really interested in repeating that history. It is not at all necessary for wealthy people to be benevolent in order to contribute to society. Nor do they need to be nice people, nor do they need to be unselfish. The free market harnesses selfishness for the benefit of society. It's why it works so well, as excoriating selfish people. For example, the Wright Brothers invented the airplane so they could get rich off of licensing the patents. Dig into it, and that's the bald, unvarnished, truth. They did get modestly wealthy, but were poor businessmen. Look at what their selfishness did - glorious airplane travel! Have you ever flown on an airplane? You're benefiting from the selfishness of the Wrights. BTW, everybody is selfish. I am selfish. You are selfish. Everyone who says they are unselfish are selfish. That's what a billion years of evolution did to us.
- CPLX 2y ago
  > Unfortunately, history provides us with examples of societies that confiscated the wealth of the wealthy Get out of here with this melodrama. We’re in a society that had higher more progressive tax rates as recently as the 1960’s. This isn’t some science fiction dystopia people are advocating for, just a return to the slightly fairer system we had before organized PR campaigns of the elites brought us the increasingly unequal dystopia we’re actually currently experiencing.
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    > We’re in a society that had higher more progressive tax rates as recently as the 1960’s. That's only superficially true. There were a lot more deductible things in those days, like company cars and 3 martini lunches. Tax shelter investing was de rigueur then. (Tax shelter investing is an inefficient diversion of resources into unproductive investments.) Reagan traded away the tax shelters and tax deductions for lower tax rates, which turned out rather well. Washington state has enormously higher tax rates today than in the 60s. Sales tax, property tax, estate tax, and now an income tax. https://dor.wa.gov/about/statistics-reports/history-washington-taxes https://dor.wa.gov/about/statistics-reports/history-washingt...
narrator 2y ago
If you can figure out which 90% we need when they are in seed stage you can become a billionaire venture capitalist. It's like someone spent their whole life searching a thousand volume library of where's Waldo books for a picture of Waldo and found him and told you where to find him and then you said, the guy is an idiot, I found Waldo right here and so could just about anyone!
- bmitc 2y ago
  That's not what I was talking about. What venture capitalists do is figure out which companies and products that they can market and sell. That doesn't say anything about what people need. People can be and are marketed and sold all sorts of things they don't need. The argument of the above commenter was that society somehow needs these companies as a sort of intrinsic need to live better lives. That's simply not true.
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    > People can be and are marketed and sold all sorts of things they don't need What things have you bought that you didn't want and don't need?
  - JimBright 2y ago
    I think you're conflating wants and needs. All you "need" is nutrition (food and water), air, and temperature regulation. It's reasonable to expand on that to include physiological needs like companionship, shelter and clothing. Sex can also be reasonably included as it is required for the propagation of the species. Everything else is a want. Who are we to dictate what people want to live a better life? What you want to live a better life is quite possibly different from what I want to lead a better life. Wouldn't you agree?

by bmitc 2y ago

benreesman 2y ago

[flagged]

laserlight 2y ago
> Do look up who Walter Bright is Stupid arguments are stupid, regardless of who said them. And, success doesn't make one right.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  > Stupid arguments are stupid, regardless of who said them Indubitably true. Yet I am one of those rarefied people who make bright arguments.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
JimBright 2y ago
HIKARU SULU: "You try to cross brains with Walter, he'll cut you to pieces every time." - from The Corbomite Maneuver
bmitc 2y ago
None of that has anything to do with anything. A person can be wrong, no matter who they are. Saying the wealthy don't have cash vaults and instead invest it in society is explicitly and intentionally manipulative of the real situation. And it's just wrong.

WalterBright 2y ago

Unfortunately, history provides us with examples of societies that confiscated the wealth of the wealthy, and even exterminated them, in their quest to make a utopia. They all ended up as hell-holes. I'm not really interested in repeating that history. It is not at all necessary for wealthy people to be benevolent in order to contribute to society. Nor do they need to be nice people, nor do they need to be unselfish. The free market harnesses selfishness for the benefit of society. It's why it works so well, as excoriating selfish people. For example, the Wright Brothers invented the airplane so they could get rich off of licensing the patents. Dig into it, and that's the bald, unvarnished, truth. They did get modestly wealthy, but were poor businessmen. Look at what their selfishness did - glorious airplane travel! Have you ever flown on an airplane? You're benefiting from the selfishness of the Wrights. BTW, everybody is selfish. I am selfish. You are selfish. Everyone who says they are unselfish are selfish. That's what a billion years of evolution did to us.

CPLX 2y ago
> Unfortunately, history provides us with examples of societies that confiscated the wealth of the wealthy Get out of here with this melodrama. We’re in a society that had higher more progressive tax rates as recently as the 1960’s. This isn’t some science fiction dystopia people are advocating for, just a return to the slightly fairer system we had before organized PR campaigns of the elites brought us the increasingly unequal dystopia we’re actually currently experiencing.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  > We’re in a society that had higher more progressive tax rates as recently as the 1960’s. That's only superficially true. There were a lot more deductible things in those days, like company cars and 3 martini lunches. Tax shelter investing was de rigueur then. (Tax shelter investing is an inefficient diversion of resources into unproductive investments.) Reagan traded away the tax shelters and tax deductions for lower tax rates, which turned out rather well. Washington state has enormously higher tax rates today than in the 60s. Sales tax, property tax, estate tax, and now an income tax. https://dor.wa.gov/about/statistics-reports/history-washington-taxes https://dor.wa.gov/about/statistics-reports/history-washingt...

narrator 2y ago

If you can figure out which 90% we need when they are in seed stage you can become a billionaire venture capitalist. It's like someone spent their whole life searching a thousand volume library of where's Waldo books for a picture of Waldo and found him and told you where to find him and then you said, the guy is an idiot, I found Waldo right here and so could just about anyone!

bmitc 2y ago
That's not what I was talking about. What venture capitalists do is figure out which companies and products that they can market and sell. That doesn't say anything about what people need. People can be and are marketed and sold all sorts of things they don't need. The argument of the above commenter was that society somehow needs these companies as a sort of intrinsic need to live better lives. That's simply not true.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  > People can be and are marketed and sold all sorts of things they don't need What things have you bought that you didn't want and don't need?
- JimBright 2y ago
  I think you're conflating wants and needs. All you "need" is nutrition (food and water), air, and temperature regulation. It's reasonable to expand on that to include physiological needs like companionship, shelter and clothing. Sex can also be reasonably included as it is required for the propagation of the species. Everything else is a want. Who are we to dictate what people want to live a better life? What you want to live a better life is quite possibly different from what I want to lead a better life. Wouldn't you agree?