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Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

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Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#81

Post by zamfi »

Another commenter posted:

> It's simple, demand "pulls" the economy far better than supply pushes it, and we are a rotten insecure society with no demand.

I'm not sure it's so simple. In certain industries, we have a ton of demand that isn't really met: housing, education, healthcare, to name three.

But the reason we don't meet the demand for these (now highly-inflationary) goods and services is political, not economic.

1. We know how to build lots of really nice housing for not that much, but the most in-demand regions prevent that construction through the political process. Any innovation in construction tech has to contend with not just limits on construction in in-demand areas, but also requirements ("all new construction needs rooftop solar!" -- I love solar, but the costs are way, way lower at utility-scale) that increase costs.

2. High-quality, public education used to be ~free, a reality that applied significant downward pressure on private college tuition as well, but state funding has entirely dried up as costs (often non-teaching-related) have soared, in part thanks to (1)!

3. Due to somewhat well-meaning regulation, healthcare has become a disaster of hidden price signals, requiring a team of bureaucrats weeks to months to decide how much money to exchange for a service already provided. Powerful political organizations limit the number of new practitioners trained in the US,

There are good and totally justifiable path-dependent reasons why we are where we are in the three industries above. But they are now the largest category of consumer cash outflows, pushing innovation to the margins (cell phones! computers! ads!). The reason housing, education, and healthcare are so expensive is because demand vastly exceeds supply, and supply is limited by politics.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#82

Post by bonestormii_ »

ReticentVole wrote: post #79
jackcosgrove wrote: post #77

Grades are inflated. Ambitious high school juniors are running bogus charities and non-profits. The smart kids do track and cross country so they can be two sport athletes. Harvard has the same curriculum as Penn State honors. Instagram lives are fabulous and fake. Wantrepreneurs start shell companies to put on their resume. It's all down to our increasing ability to satisfy human material needs. Instead of allocatin…

We need a grand strategy. Our first order of business should be to end the burning of fossil fuels, second order being to establish permanent presence beyond Earth. Otherwise it feels like we are just twiddling our thumbs, redistributing wealth (upwards), and slowly dying.

I want space colonies as much as the next guy, but we really need to try to end homelessness, poverty, and extreme gaps in wealth inequality. Otherwise the rich will just fly off into the sky after they are done with the planet anyway.

The production is there. The money is there. If we simply won't do this, we aren't worth preserving as a society.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#84

Post by termau »

I couldn't get all the way though it, it's almost as bad as the circle jerk that is the start up 'industry'.

Reading it I just think why does it matter either way? You're either looking for profit, looking for scale, or looking for someone to bankroll you to do those things. The rest is all noise, so much noise.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#85

Post by notahacker »

neilk wrote: post #73
notahacker wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So if wantrepreneurism is a form of conspicuous consumption for the privileged - or those who desire to become so - what's the equivalent for the less privileged? > I think it has to be MLM and Instagram influencing. The wantrepreneur wants to be a mini-Jobs, but the MLM/Insta dreamer wants to be a mini-Kardashian, hawking products with a glamorous image. But their desire is exploited ruthlessly by a system that pr…

I think the negatives are often underappreciated. I know founders who ruined their credit, destroyed their friendships, ended lifelong relationships, lost their sanity, and in one case, probably committed suicide. Some do move on to other things and have a lingering sense they are failures, because they knew one or two people who exited with millions who seemed no better than they were. And they don't think they can…

I think this is true and nearly referenced the psychological downsides in my OP, I'm just perhaps uncharitably assuming the 'wantrapreneur' class dreams of riches and enjoys pitch sessions but has less commitment than most founders to actually executing their idea and hitting targets, and fewer staff and customers to feel they've let down.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#87

Post by ReticentVole »

bonestormii_ wrote: post #82
ReticentVole wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a grand strategy. Our first order of business should be to end the burning of fossil fuels, second order being to establish permanent presence beyond Earth. Otherwise it feels like we are just twiddling our thumbs, redistributing wealth (upwards), and slowly dying.

I want space colonies as much as the next guy, but we really need to try to end homelessness, poverty, and extreme gaps in wealth inequality. Otherwise the rich will just fly off into the sky after they are done with the planet anyway. The production is there. The money is there. If we simply won't do this, we aren't worth preserving as a society.

The willpower and genetic heritage of the poor and homeless isn't there. Most people at the very bottom are in that position because of mental or genetic problems. You cannot continue to throw money at it - you will end up with an endless burden. Instead just fund planned parenthood so that the cycle doesn't continue.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#88

Post by Barrin92 »

Thorentis wrote: post #75

Some fascinating observations here. What they describe perfectly explains the rise of places like IndieHacker. IndieHacker is basically a website for Veblenian Entrepreneurs to show off how successfully they are, and how far along they are to being real entrepreneurs. It is a place where their real desires (success, social status, etc.) can be easily signaled to other people. The increasing number of innovation hubs,…

what this also reminded me of is a story about "fake influencers" I read which are people on Instagram and so on who pretend to be paid influencers, they go on trips, shoot photos but actually nobody is paying them at all. On the one side, of course, there is a real financial motivation to become more famous, but on the other hand like the entrepreneurs, they just seem to want to consume the influencer lifestyle and for a while just pretend like they're engaging in the actual activity.

Re: Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur (2019)

#89

Post by bonestormii_ »

ReticentVole wrote: post #87
bonestormii_ wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want space colonies as much as the next guy, but we really need to try to end homelessness, poverty, and extreme gaps in wealth inequality. Otherwise the rich will just fly off into the sky after they are done with the planet anyway. The production is there. The money is there. If we simply won't do this, we aren't worth preserving as a society.

The willpower and genetic heritage of the poor and homeless isn't there. Most people at the very bottom are in that position because of mental or genetic problems. You cannot continue to throw money at it - you will end up with an endless burden. Instead just fund planned parenthood so that the cycle doesn't continue.

This perspective is a tragedy, and is just not the case.

Guess what--It's hard to get a good job with a criminal record, and it's easy to have a criminal record when you are black/brown.

So you take a bad job. And with that job, you remain so poor that you cannot handle the slightest emergency. A huge bill or disaster in your life (medical; car; legal) can pretty much end you. If you don't have a strong network to support you, you become homeless.

How do you reconcile the fact that most homeless people have some sort of family structure that is not homeless? I've never seen any evidence that homelessness is an inherited condition.

You blame both will power and genetics. Why are you so anxious to believe that society has no role in creating or solving this problem? If you make access to education equitable; if you don't ruin people's ability to engage with the economy with drug offenses that statistically appear quite racist in their skew; if you treat mental problems with medical assistance rather than criminal justice systems; if you regulate housing markets to prioritize making housing affordable rather than prioritize generating passive income for upper classes-- you can have a meaningful reduction of homelessness.

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