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Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
51–60 of 291 posts
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#52I've known this for decades. When Bill Gates started publishing Smart Basic (or whatever) in magazines, I got a copy and saw what crap it was. I could do better. Why didn't I? That was my very first thought. The reason was, I had to work halftime to pay tuition and buy food. I was mired in working to live. Ol Bill had a family to support him as he bought resources (ads in magazines etc), recruited staff, took meeting…
Or all the UBI money would pump up rents to the point that living costs make it infeasible again.
Soviet style housing is an answer and also not an answer.
It would provide housing for people on UBI, but because it’s operating on a thin budget, over time it becomes less desirable.
Now, it’s not always the case _if_ you can get the tenants to coöperate and pitch in on basic maintenance and keep anti social behavior at bay ala Singapore, but my feeling is we’re not of the same mindset as Singaporeans.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#53I've heard a great deal about Bill Gates in my lifetime, but it wasn't until I read Paul Allen's 2011 autobiography that I learned that Bill's mother (a director at a bank) introduced him to IBM chairman John Opel in 1980. They both sat on the board for United Way[0]. It really struck me how these kinds of connections are less of a twist of fate, and more about environment and proximity. Even now it feels remarkable…
Not surprising to a British reader. Sutton Trust research [1] finds that positions of influence in the UK, and the professions generally, are dominated by the 7% who were privately educated. Conclusion: networks and connections are everything. [1] https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/elitist-britain-201...
The UK is probably worse off for having such an obvious clue that someone is high class. Accents are harder to switch than clothes and a haircut.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#54I've known this for decades. When Bill Gates started publishing Smart Basic (or whatever) in magazines, I got a copy and saw what crap it was. I could do better. Why didn't I? That was my very first thought. The reason was, I had to work halftime to pay tuition and buy food. I was mired in working to live. Ol Bill had a family to support him as he bought resources (ads in magazines etc), recruited staff, took meeting…
I cant wait for basic income, because I cant wait to quit my job and focus on my ideas.
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. As much as it is discussed and promoted in certain circles, it has basically no traction in national politics and its hard to see that it ever will since national level politics is currently pre-occupied with trying to figure out if crimes are actually illegal when their own party does them.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or all the UBI money would pump up rents to the point that living costs make it infeasible again.
UBI needs to be paired with restricting rent increases or eliminating zoning restrictions that limit housing supply then.
> restricting rent increases
No, that'll just create a lottery system and unemployment or lower wages, because people won't be able to move to the jobs.
> eliminating zoning restrictions that limit housing
Yes, this would be great.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#56One thing that confuses me, though - if having a strong safety net to fall back on is important to enable entrepreneurship, why does it seem like Europe is so bad at it?
We have a lot of small start-ups, the successful ones go to the US to get more financing and less taxes.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#57I've known this for decades. When Bill Gates started publishing Smart Basic (or whatever) in magazines, I got a copy and saw what crap it was. I could do better. Why didn't I? That was my very first thought. The reason was, I had to work halftime to pay tuition and buy food. I was mired in working to live. Ol Bill had a family to support him as he bought resources (ads in magazines etc), recruited staff, took meeting…
Or all the UBI money would pump up rents to the point that living costs make it infeasible again.
Then you can tax landlords an funnel money back into UBI
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or all the UBI money would pump up rents to the point that living costs make it infeasible again.
Rents only get pumped up if we don't have enough housing to go around... in which case regular incomes do the same thing.
But we do have lots of housing, it's just located in places people don't want to live. Rents are high in places they do want to be, and that's partly a positional thing -- if you want to live where the top-10% of earners live, you need to bid against them for housing.
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the case for rent restrictions. It's actually worse - rent control decreases housing mobility (nobody wants to give up a rent-controlled apartment, even if it no longer meets their needs) and disincentivizes development, so the prevailing market rate for non -rent-controlled apartments goes up. But eliminating zoning restrictions and building more housing actually does work. Then when you move, you have your p…
I live in a rent-restricted area. There is quite a bit of construction, and the average person moves almost once every two years. The effects of rent-restriction you quote are theoretical effects. In the real world, it does work, as long as the rent-restrictions are well-thought-out.
My interpretation of the evidence leads to the opposite conclusion. Here's a good summary:
Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Healthcare and Basic Income would do a lot to encourage entrepreneurship. I had to also wait till I paid off my student loans. There are a whole lot of shackles if you come from a humble background to starting a company full time. On the other hand it has never been cheaper to start a side hustle.
> Healthcare and Basic Income would do a lot to encourage entrepreneurship. I have a dream that Healthcare will someday be decoupled from employment. So much waste is tolerated simply due to the fact that the majority of the expense is borne by your employer before the number they put on your paycheck. I can live on a part time salary without issue, but health insurance, which is already $200/wk for my family with my…
You know that your dream is actually the standard in every developed nation except the US right?