Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Ponzi Career

drorpoleg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 310 posts

Re: The Ponzi Career

#31

Post by bradleyjg »

danans wrote: post #16
mattzito wrote: post #14

There’s literally nothing in this article that you couldn’t replace “token” or “coin” with “contract” or “membership” and have it work exactly the same. The idea of selling contracts against future income is interesting but putting the blockchain here is yet another solution in search of a problem.

> The idea of selling contracts against future income is interesting Isn't that also basically what any interest bearing loan/mortgage is?

No, those are personal debts (in one case secured). There’s been on and off again interest for as long as I can remember about creating personal equity interests (i.e. the payout depends on how much the person earns). Now with blockchain(tm).

Re: The Ponzi Career

#32

Post by joosters »

bsanr2 wrote: post #20
mattzito wrote: post #14

There’s literally nothing in this article that you couldn’t replace “token” or “coin” with “contract” or “membership” and have it work exactly the same. The idea of selling contracts against future income is interesting but putting the blockchain here is yet another solution in search of a problem.

Putting the contract on the blockchain allows it to be traded like, but not as, a security while the SEC et al. drag their feet on classifying crypto-tokens as securities. Something like that.

So it's a way to dodge the law? (while ruining the environment, of course)

Re: The Ponzi Career

#33

Post by Igelau »

sgt101 wrote: post #17

"Isn't this the same as traditional student debt or, worse, indentured servitude? Not really" Saying "not really" doesn't make something so. This is, literary indentured servitude. By definition.

> a person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses and maintenance.

This != That

Re: The Ponzi Career

#34

Post by ausbah »

is this suppose to be good? this sounds awful. it just reads like finance and tech have eaten literally everything, down to a person's life

I guess there is more "freedom"? but that seems to come at the cost of stability and more winner take all scenarios

like a lot of this stuff isn't new, but the degree to which is seems prevalent reads dystopic

Re: The Ponzi Career

#35

Post by LB232323 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

I enjoyed the piece. Personally, I want no part of it, but I think it might work well for people who are not me. I've always been "on my own." My life really is a series of watersheds, where I've been the only person to believe in me, before the event, and a whole bunch of folks seemed to believe in me, after the fact. Not a particularly good setup for selling "Chris-Tokens™." Not a bad thing, in the long run. It hur…

It's not a character flaw or lack of skills in not being able to "sell yourself". It's a sense of dignity and pride as a working person.

You are not a commodity, you are a human being. You may look like a commodity to a business owner, but you refuse to allow yourself to become one.

Honesty and honor are worth more than money. There is money to be made in making yourself into a sort of corporate dog, but it will leave you feeling empty inside.

I am definitely not politically conservative, but I live in a conservative way as well. I don't think it's superior, but it's nice to have peace and stability.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#36

Post by PragmaticPulp »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #21

I've run into that with doctors now and again. You'll meet a younger doctor who complains heavily about student debt and how impossible life in the US is. I'll offer to write a check for the debt in return for a negotiated percentage of their income from now on. Silence ensues.

> I'll offer to write a check for the debt in return for a negotiated percentage of their income from now on. Silence ensues.

Writing someone a check in exchange for their future earnings "from now on" is a terrible deal. You're essentially offering a loan that can never be paid back, yet requires payments forever.

Loans are a good deal because the terms are known ahead of time, payments end when the principle is paid off, and the cost can be calculated.

The idea behind ISAs is that they try to align the interests of the student and the educator, as the educator only gets paid proportionally to the students' future earnings. ISAs also have limits on how long they can collect from the student and thresholds that have to be met for collection criteria, as well as an upper limit on payments.

What you're describing is just facetious and condescending to those with six-figure medical debt.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#37

Post by ramblerman »

I think the author explains perfectly the risk of the future where we see more and more winner takes all scenarios.

But the conclusion seems a bit off. Basic income seems like the only recourse IMO

Re: The Ponzi Career

#38

Post by llaolleh »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #21

I've run into that with doctors now and again. You'll meet a younger doctor who complains heavily about student debt and how impossible life in the US is. I'll offer to write a check for the debt in return for a negotiated percentage of their income from now on. Silence ensues.

Haha I love this.

If we think about it in terms of pure game play, medicine is a part of the game where the strategy is to take on a massive amount of debt, high risk and uncertainty for incredible returns.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#39

Post by gcheong »

sgt101 wrote: post #17

"Isn't this the same as traditional student debt or, worse, indentured servitude? Not really" Saying "not really" doesn't make something so. This is, literary indentured servitude. By definition.

By what definition? In the lambda school case you only pay back if you’re in a job that pays >50k/year, it’s a percentage of income, and it’s capped at 30k. Indentured servitude requires you to do basically anything for your indenture holder for no pay until you’ve paid it back. Student loans that cannot be discharged regardless of circumstance sounds far more like indentured servitude than an ISA to me so “not really” I think is a fair assessment.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#40

Post by meowkit »

joosters wrote: post #32
bsanr2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting the contract on the blockchain allows it to be traded like, but not as, a security while the SEC et al. drag their feet on classifying crypto-tokens as securities. Something like that.

So it's a way to dodge the law? (while ruining the environment, of course)

No. What law is being dodged here?

Again, no. Brute force Nakamoto consensus is bad for the environment, but lumping all crypto into that bucket is ignorant/intellectually dishonest.

Post reply on HN