aurum

You cannot compare VC investing to mortgages. They have different terms because they operate differently, with different goals and incentives. If startups wanted a bank loan, i.e a mortgage, they could get one. But notice they often don't. They specifically seek VC funding, because VC funding is superior for their goals. VC exists precisely because what you are describing doesn't work for innovative firms. Risk IS functionally infinite for a business because survival never ends. It doesn't matter how big you are, you are always at risk of losing it all. There is no time when you are in the clear. There are always competitors, changing markets, recessions, regulatory changes, lawsuits, loss of employees, etc. If they're so competitively advantageous, then where are they? Why isn't Amazon an NDE? That's fine, but that's not going to get you innovative firms that rise to prominence. You need high-risk investing. End of story.

This shows a lack of understand of the role of VC and what Silicon Valley does. The fact that some aspects of some projects might be initially funded by "patient capital" does NOT mean VC and Silicon Valley becomes irrelevant. It doesn't work like that. All those technologies need to be mass-scale commercialized and eventually win a significant portion of the market. That requires a business with massive amounts of capital, in the hundreds of millions, to do it. You do NOT get that money from "patient capital". It comes from investors willing to take huge risks for huge returns, i.e your "gamblers". And how do you know what is a good investment? This itself is an extremely powerful skill that the vast majority of people don't have. Yes, you DO need 100x returns for innovation. Because that's the only way it is sustainable when the vast majority of your investments fail. You need a small percentage to hit a massive home-run, or you're cooked as a VC. To not understand this is a lack of holism. VCs are structurally necessary. Do you really think toll booths aren't needed??? It's like you think a table only needs three legs. It's fine to want to plug value leaks. The problem is passive shareholders are NOT value leaks. You need passive shareholders because you need capital to survive. There is no moment where "risk has been repaid". And allocation cannot be left up to workers, because their incentive structure is different.

The "patient" capital you describe will never invest in innovative, highly-competitive, powerful companies. You will not get the next Tesla, OpenAI or other companies that require large, long-term risk with capped returns. The capital you are describing will invest in safe, low innovative firms. Those "gamblers" in Silicon Valley are the ones that actually create innovative things. They are needed, and a society that disregards them will pay the price. This shows your actual agenda, which is redistribution of resources to those at the bottom. You are assuming those at the top are parasitic, while workers are the actual value-creators and not exploitative. This is incorrect.

Alt-economics is usually deep self-deception. You have no idea how to do things better. Survival will crush your supposed solutions.

That does NOT solve the trap. No serious large investor would accept 3x returns. It's worthwhile for them to invest because they are looking for home-runs. Companies would also not want it because they need those huge investments. If you try to regulate 3x returns, the regulatory apparatus itself will get captured. Self-owned firms are also not a solution because all the profit that was going to shareholders will now just be extracted by those inside the company.

Non-profits DO care about profit and ARE extremely competitive amogst themselves. The distinction between charity and "normal business" is also not clear, because it's always about survival value. And it's always funded by someone. The only difference is they just don't hold onto their profit at the end of the year. Non-profits are usually weak compared to for-profit firms, unable to compete with them. And so why don't they reinvest more? Because having shareholders is more competitively valuable than reinvestment. Where is that initial capital boost going to come from? If it's comes from shareholders or banks, that's just a for-profit corporation. If it comes from donations or government grants, that's essentially just a non-profit. None of which get us anywhere new. No one is going to give your business free money, it's going to have to come from somewhere. And those that give it to you will expect something in return. No amount of utopian, alt-economics will change this.

@Davino you are essentially just describing non-profits. Those already exist, and they cannot outcompete the current capitalist system. If firms could just reinvest their surplus into the company, many of them would do that. The problem is they can't. They need capital from shareholders. Survival is the bottleneck. Not structure. Structure bends around survival.

@Lord Kadaver cut it off clean.

@Shermaningeorgia Heal your wounds with women. Your anger is obvious.

I wouldn't worry about measuring your results. Just focus on breaking down your nights deeply after you go out. You could journal, talk about it or just contemplate. Whatever way you like best to process. But spend a lot of time making sense of your interactions. You'll naturally adjust as you see your mistakes.

Happy holidays everyone.

@AION You can do things like ENM or swinging if you really feel like your sex drive is that high. But to be honest, I think you're fooling yourself a bit here. Dropping out of dating is not a solution to having a really high sex drive.

Exactly this. Just declaring yourself a solipsist does not mean you understand God or what solipsism is.

@Butters not "obedient". You don't need or want a slave. That will quickly become tyrannical.

Good SD Green take.