Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
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Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#2What's the end goal here, to have people hired "because they are black?" I guarantee that will happen if there is money to be made by doing it.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#3"At this moment of heightened public awareness, forcing big public pension funds to commit to putting more of their dollars in funds controlled by minorities could have a major impact. These public institutions, unlike their corporate kin, represent a wide and diverse swath of the country, making investment decisions for public servants like teachers, firefighters and municipal workers."
While I think this is a phenomenal idea, it should be noted that systems like this that currently exist are frequently, almost typically, gamed. I went to work for a Federal Government certified 8a minority woman owned business with at the time about 20 employees in my mid-20s. I remember thinking how cool that was.
The "CEO" was a highly competent woman of Filipino descent who, after having kids, had chosen to become a stay-at home mom. She was CEO in name only, and her husband (a big giant white dude who was also highly competent) was the actual CEO, but with a different title.
The company's main source of revenue was acting as a prime contractor on contracts only available to 8a companies, then subbing the work out to large contractors. Another regulation on the company was a cap on it's profits, as well as a cap on salaries of individual employees. Their way around that was that the acting CEO and his wife both earned max level salaries. Another C level co-founder also payed his wife the maximum salary, and near as we can tell, her sole item of work for the company was sending out holiday gift baskets.
Again, good idea, but we need to think very hard about how to ACTUALLY help, rather than just making a small number of people who know how to game the system wealthy.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#4If we are going to have rules like this, then we need to sort out what legally counts as a minority.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lynnwood-man-tried...
https://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7431391/guess-where-white-ame...
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#5What's the end goal here, to have people hired "because they are black?" I guarantee that will happen if there is money to be made by doing it.
Transfer of wealth from a social group that is perceived as unfairly advantaged, to another group, that is perceived otherwise. Since pensions are gone for most of the people nowadays, targeting pension funds will result in relatively low public pushback, compared to other targets.
And as long as the public approves it, millions could be spent on committees figuring out "the best way to do it", bureaucrats making policies, etc. Political game as it is, nothing new.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#6What's the end goal here, to have people hired "because they are black?" I guarantee that will happen if there is money to be made by doing it.
If you haven't noticed, that's been the goal for a long time now. People get accepted to college because of the color of their skin. People get better SAT scores now because of the color of their skin. Every major company has diversity boards which make sure to hire people based in the color of their skin. Hollywood and big business choose who to be in ads, movies, and other customer facing media because of the color of their skin. Groups decide their memberships based on the color of people's skin. CHAZ protesters in Seattle are arguing for judging people in court differently based on the color of their skin.
It's really so interesting that these groups of politically motivated people think they're ending what they perceive as racism ... by being as racist as it's possible to be.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#7"At this moment of heightened public awareness, forcing big public pension funds to commit to putting more of their dollars in funds controlled by minorities could have a major impact. These public institutions, unlike their corporate kin, represent a wide and diverse swath of the country, making investment decisions for public servants like teachers, firefighters and municipal workers." While I think this is a pheno…
O wow this takes me back to my first software job we did pretty much only government contracts but were not eligible for 8a. We had another company was that eligible that we sort of brought on to tons on contracts to make the requirements; they were pretty much a single person shop that got paid to be visible.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#8What's the end goal here, to have people hired "because they are black?" I guarantee that will happen if there is money to be made by doing it.
Yes, the white guilt / virtue signaling has truly gotten out of control. Identity politics is dangerous and is causing division to get much worse.
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#9What person from an underrepresented group wants to be chosen just because of their group status? Isn't that highly patronizing for someone who likely had worked hard to get to where they got? Do you want to be "pretty great for a xxxxx person!" or just "one of the best".
Is this a lesson that people want their kids to learn?
Doesn't this also lead discrimination actually being a rational (and maybe ethical) thing to do?
Simply put- if the top 100 medical students (based on MCAT, boards scores, etc) are chosen to become heart surgeons, choosing a heart surgeon from those 100 based on race or gender is not only absolutely egregious morally but it's also irrational.
But if the top 90 of the 100 medical students are chosen and then 10 are chosen because of non-relevant factors (race, gender, etc)... doesn't it become rational (and maybe morally acceptable) to try and avoid choosing those lesser-qualified 10 for your life-or-death surgery?
Re: Want to Solve Venture Capital's Diversity Problem? Start with Pension Funds
#10What's the end goal here, to have people hired "because they are black?" I guarantee that will happen if there is money to be made by doing it.
If you haven't noticed, that's been the goal for a long time now. People get accepted to college because of the color of their skin. People get better SAT scores now because of the color of their skin. Every major company has diversity boards which make sure to hire people based in the color of their skin. Hollywood and big business choose who to be in ads, movies, and other customer facing media because of the color…
No idea why are you being downvoted. It seems like a pretty accurate description of what's happening.
We don't have much of that in my country but we have it with women. Anyway it will eventually reach us as we're already colonized by American culture.