7858
@7858.eth
The government would (and does!) give money to the wrong companies If they get it wrong every single time, they just point a gun at your head and say “another ten percent this year or I’ll shoot you in the face” If a16z gets it wrong often enough, all their money ends up in the hands of others and they go away
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
keccers
@keccers.eth
👎 the public already subsidizes vc risk (hello svb bailout? still mad about that) and the gov is paying either way. it’s just with VCs, we pay middleman markups failure =! Tax hike necessity, also. That’s a slippery slope!!
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
7858
@7858.eth
Strong agree that government should stop giving out money, subsidizing VC risk is bad. Government subsidy of almost any form is bad. My point is not that there would be an actual tax hike. It was just meant to be an illustration that there’s no organic and automatic accountability mechanism for government, as exists for private enterprise, at least in a healthy system free from government manipulation. VC is a massively positive sum game that grows the pie. We are better off with VCs taking cuts than with no VCs at all. There is no way that capital extorted from industry and citizens, then put into the hands of unelected bureaucrats is going to be allocated more efficiently than it would be by professional investors who pay their bills with their winners. So, assuming that we all want startups to exist and thrive, it’s better to have allocation handled by VCs with skin in the game than by inept corrupt bureaucrats, or even perfectly honest smart bureaucrats, because their incentives aren’t aligned.
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
keccers
@keccers.eth
Booo Let’s go point by point “Taxes are extortion” Tax-funded research built the conditions in which VC can operate at all “there’s no organic and automatic accountability mechanism ” The answer to lack of accountability is reform, not subcontracting the future away to people who only answer to LPs. There are examples in our history as well as in other countries it can be done “VC is a massively positive sum game that grows the pie.” Yes and so was NASA. Positive sum is not exclusive to private cos. Plus, VCs chase hype. They don’t build long lasting infrastructure like we would want for our military or towns “Inefficient and misaligned” Tesla wouldn’t exist without a DoE loan ffs. This isn’t rooted in reality. Some of the best bets in tech history came from public programs not burdened by vc short termism “No skin in the game” Skin in the game =! moral alignment. The 2008 financial crisis happened under people who had a lot of ‘skin in the game’
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
