How can you spend "$25 billion in K-12 school infrastructure" and "$1 billion to support NextGen air traffic modernization" "all without adding a dime to the deficit"? I think the programs should go ahead deficit or no, but it does seem like something's being left out.
White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
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Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the kind of worthless comment I hoped would never become commonplace on Hacker News. There's no argument here. There's no point. It's just an snide jab with an information content of zero. If you disagree with the article, say specifically why. If you agree, say specifically why.
I think wavephorm makes a valid point. The government has been giving huge sums to the banking industry to bail it out, a fact. And a tiny fraction of that to entrepreneurs, also a fact. If the US had more startup-friendly policies, you could imaging a $100B fund, still 1/40th of the banking industry bailout, that could have a huge positive effect. Being aware of the disparity is the first step toward correcting it.
No, because instead of saying this he just had a snarky remark. Exactly what financial issues of recent times is he taking issue with? The TARP bailout? The stimulus? Is he arguing that this project in and of itself would produce more benefit for the financial industry than entrepreneurs? I can't nail down his position because he didn't use enough words to explain his point.
Aside: Using "banksters" is like using "M$"; all it does is show everyone that you can't make your point without resorting to the maturity of a 5-year-old.
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#33I wish the president had used this opportunity to support real patent reform. That could've been a huge step toward supporting startups and job creation.
Protect IP Act passed today, I believe, which is a real bummer for actual patent reform that will promote innovation, since the system was just shifted from a 'first to invent' to a 'first to file,' supporting patent farming/fencing and litigation. Bummer :(
It passed? I haven't been able to find anything about it passing, and GovTrack[0] still shows that neither the house nor senate has voted on it.
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#34How can you spend "$25 billion in K-12 school infrastructure" and "$1 billion to support NextGen air traffic modernization" "all without adding a dime to the deficit"? I think the programs should go ahead deficit or no, but it does seem like something's being left out.
Often its by just shuffling funds from certain programs to another. I believe in this particular case, they'll also use revenue-generating measures like closing tax loopholes to fund the new programs, thereby not adding to the deficit.
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#35From the outside looking in, I really don't understand why Obama's approval ratings are at an all time low. I wish the UK were as elegantly pragmatic as this.
The U.S. economy is stalled because of a wave of government legislative activism (health care, finance, bailouts, energy, labor) unseen here since the New Deal.
>The U.S. economy is stalled because of a wave of government legislative activism
Really? I thought it was that dive in consumer demand.
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#36Its exciting to watch this proposal start to come to fruition. I worked in the government, and attended an Access to Capital Summit in the Dept of Treasury back in March, where I saw this proposal take bloom.
At the Summit, Jessica Jackley of Profounder and Kiva vocally voiced concern for the Reg A and Reg D restrictions on "accredited investors". Sec Geithner was in the room as well. A month afterwards, the idea had organically permeated other conversations in the White House, and meetings in the OSTP would often bring up the issue. Now it seems its finally made its way into legislative proposal.
Comes to show I think, that even though government is slow, byzantine, and sometimes impossible to access, often all it takes to get something done is to just show up and say something really provocative. Someone may listen!
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#37From the outside looking in, I really don't understand why Obama's approval ratings are at an all time low. I wish the UK were as elegantly pragmatic as this.
Because it is lip service only. This plan will be muddled by congress as to benefit primarily the large institutions that are their donors, rather than the intended swath of USians. When that happens, don't expect Obama to be outraged. The exact same thing happened with health care, tax rates, debt cap, etc.
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#38I wish the president had used this opportunity to support real patent reform. That could've been a huge step toward supporting startups and job creation.
Protect IP Act passed today, I believe, which is a real bummer for actual patent reform that will promote innovation, since the system was just shifted from a 'first to invent' to a 'first to file,' supporting patent farming/fencing and litigation. Bummer :(
Protect IP didn't pass; it was the America Invents Act (patent reform).
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#39I wish the president had used this opportunity to support real patent reform. That could've been a huge step toward supporting startups and job creation.
How many people do you know who didn't create a startup because of patents ? I'm not saying patent reform isn't important, but it's probably not even in the top-100 problems the average startup faces.
I think that's not how OP was thinking about it. People may not be able to create a startup--or even think to do so--because someone else's patented product could be unavailable to them (due to monopoly pricing), not because they feared that their final product wouldn't be strongly patentable. The number of people who are prohibited from even being be able to obtain the knowledge to innovate is uncountable.
Of course it's a trade-off between incentivizing innovation on one hand and enabling the spread of knowledge on the other, but needless to say the number of people who didn't create a startup because of patents is inestimable (not inestimably high, just inestimable).
Re: White House proposes crowdfunding exemption
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Protect IP Act passed today, I believe, which is a real bummer for actual patent reform that will promote innovation, since the system was just shifted from a 'first to invent' to a 'first to file,' supporting patent farming/fencing and litigation. Bummer :(
Protect IP didn't pass; it was the America Invents Act (patent reform).
Thanks for the correction. I keep mixing the two up :-\