It’s Time to Build • Hacker News Board

Post by toobulkeh » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 7:27 PM UTC

jonathanberger wrote: post #812

zachrose wrote: post #44

> I’m with Nicholas Stern when he says that capitalism is how we take care of people we don’t know — all of these fields are highly lucrative already and should be prime stomping grounds for capitalist investment, good both for the investor and the customers who are served. I'm not familiar with Nicholas Stern, and will look him up, but does anyone here want to elaborate as if you were talking to a five-year-old?

At this point in the essay, Andreessen is wondering aloud why more building hasn't happened in the United States to solve problems in fields like education, manufacturing, and transportation. He asks what the reasons could be, and lists several rejecting each of them. One reason that he rejects for why more building hasn't happened is capitalism. Andreessen thinks capitalism can't be the reason for us not building be…

I don't disagree with his statement, but I disagree with his expectations. These systems are NOT ripe for capitalism. Capitalism is built to fulfill demand. There was never demand from the government for it to distribute cash, therefore they never built a system for it. There was never a real demand for a vaccine, so we never developed it.

Capitalism is why we're in this mess - we're valuing short-term gains over long-term/far-fetched/society-changing results - and a16z is part of that system. Sure, he's at the edge of that system, but I guarantee you he would not have invested in a coronavirus vaccine in mid-2019 when there was no market for one.

I would not say it's time to build. I would say it's time to change our system of motivation. Money does not, and will not ever, solve these problems BEFORE they become problems.