Corporate America Hasn’t Been Disrupted

Post by yvsong » Fri, Aug 08, 2014, 6:56 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #40

schnable wrote: post #30

Much of what we are seeing is the effect of our insane visa and immigration policies. The traditional entrepreneurial spirit of the United States was driven by the culture of immigrants. Over 40% of the companies on the Fortune 500 were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. These were once disruptive startups. Now we make it very difficult for talented and intelligent people to become permanent residen…

Has the number of people becoming U.S. permanent residents or naturalized citizens actually declined, relative to the times those Fortune 500 companies were founded? As far as I can tell, it hasn't: somewhere around 1 million new permanent residencies are granted per year in the 2010s, versus ~250,000 in 1960, which is actually about twice as many relative to population (~0.3% of population annually now, up from ~0.1…

Post by grosbisou » Fri, Aug 08, 2014, 7:08 PM UTC

spodek wrote: post #28

As a Professor of entrepreneurship at NYU's engineering school (that VC Fred Wilson called a jewel -- http://avc.com/2014/03/the-value-of-an-engineering-degree ), I can summarize the problem in one phrase many of my students said when describing their goals after graduation: "... but I have to get a job at a big company to sponsor my visa." They're brilliant, motivated, and capable, but almost none are citizens. To s…

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast » Fri, Aug 08, 2014, 7:24 PM UTC

Consultant32452 wrote: post #46

maxsilver wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree entirely. This is a perfect write up of the situation at hand. > but one sector that isn't being targeted is the (disintegrating) middle class. So, what (if anything) can we do to fix this? Is there anything a regular person can do or work on to help the (disintegrating) middle class?

I would suggest joining unions and encouraging others to join them. With all the nonsense coming out of Google, Microsoft and others regarding wage warfare against their own employees I'm shocked that developers haven't unionized.

Post by autokad » Fri, Aug 08, 2014, 7:38 PM UTC

pyrrhotech wrote: post #33

sadface wrote: post #24

I have another suggestion for the decline in startup rates: health care and college expenses. The historically "prime" years for entrepreneurship are in one's late 30's to early 50's, years when one typically has a family in need of healthcare, college tuition, and hopefully retirement at some point down the line. In the 70's and 80's someone could leave the security of their big company, get relatively affordable pr…

I dunno, state schools are still pretty cheap. My sister's tuition with room and board is $10k per year. If you are someone smart enough to be an entrepreneur in your late 30s, you should have a corporate job paying 150k+ and can save all 4 years worth in a matter of months with a bit of determination. And health care, while expensive, isn't as big of a deal as most people make it out to be. Get a high deductible pla…

Post by lesterbuck » Fri, Aug 08, 2014, 7:44 PM UTC

madengr wrote: post #32

sadface wrote: post #24

I have another suggestion for the decline in startup rates: health care and college expenses. The historically "prime" years for entrepreneurship are in one's late 30's to early 50's, years when one typically has a family in need of healthcare, college tuition, and hopefully retirement at some point down the line. In the 70's and 80's someone could leave the security of their big company, get relatively affordable pr…

You nailed it. I also add that the government (probably varies allot by state) makes it very difficult to hire employees. My wife and I hired a nanny a few years ago, doing everything by the book regarding taxes and insurance. Still got fined twice for some infantile amount owed on something, even after three calls to the state office resulted in three separate amounts of what we owed. I'll NEVER take on an employee…