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I’m really not sure of your point. If I have a huge market opportunity and I can grow the business by spending the cash flow, I should do that instead of distr

by svnt 2y ago

I’m really not sure of your point. If I have a huge market opportunity and I can grow the business by spending the cash flow, I should do that instead of distributing that cash flow as profits. That opportunity will most likely not persist. What you are proposing is that businesses should pay taxes on their income irrespective of expenses which is just a good way to break a lot of perfectly good businesses, and reduce the ability for businesses to capture new markets. There are a number of ways where tax law could better capture the participation of large businesses, but this tack you’re on is not one of them. One cannot avoid using technically correct terms (“jargon”) when discussing this as the categories of capital are critical to both the essential function of a business and the point you’re trying to make.

harry8 2y ago
Limit yourself to interpreting what has actually been said and discussion will probably go better. Q Where does the money come from if there's no profit? A There would be profit, but they spent it investing in their business. Answering the implicit question "how can you spend profit investing to make it so there is no profit?" Which is the obvious follow up. That's it. I did follow it up with "what would you do given this choice in your own business?", "should this choice be possible?", and "how would you change things if you don't think so?" Because once you've understood what is going on these are the next obvious discussion points that come up. I expressed no opinion on any of them. What I have done is been really, really clear about what is actually going on in the face of some pretty poor responses for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen this before even though it's a very common situation. What I avoided was a credentials size war and still haven't stated any, letting the argument run on merit. Maybe caring at all about it has been a waste of time. But yeah, that's another way of saying do we just give up on HN as being a community decayed too far to still be interesting and useful - especially to the startup-curious. I kinda hope not but YMMV and I could well be prone to wishful thinking.
- svnt 2y ago
  You don’t understand the terms you’re using in the context you’re using them in, and you don’t seem interested in learning to use them in the same way as everyone else. This steadfast refusal is preventing your understanding from progressing.
  - harry8 2y ago
    Maybe, but I strongly doubt it. Best.

by svnt 2y ago

harry8 2y ago

Limit yourself to interpreting what has actually been said and discussion will probably go better. Q Where does the money come from if there's no profit? A There would be profit, but they spent it investing in their business. Answering the implicit question "how can you spend profit investing to make it so there is no profit?" Which is the obvious follow up. That's it. I did follow it up with "what would you do given this choice in your own business?", "should this choice be possible?", and "how would you change things if you don't think so?" Because once you've understood what is going on these are the next obvious discussion points that come up. I expressed no opinion on any of them. What I have done is been really, really clear about what is actually going on in the face of some pretty poor responses for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen this before even though it's a very common situation. What I avoided was a credentials size war and still haven't stated any, letting the argument run on merit. Maybe caring at all about it has been a waste of time. But yeah, that's another way of saying do we just give up on HN as being a community decayed too far to still be interesting and useful - especially to the startup-curious. I kinda hope not but YMMV and I could well be prone to wishful thinking.

svnt 2y ago
You don’t understand the terms you’re using in the context you’re using them in, and you don’t seem interested in learning to use them in the same way as everyone else. This steadfast refusal is preventing your understanding from progressing.
- harry8 2y ago
  Maybe, but I strongly doubt it. Best.