Is that so unreasonable? Lots of people post that Wall Street corporations are dominated by short term, next quarter thinking. If that were true, then shorting those stocks would be a profitable plan. It seems reasonable to point out that if one is so sure corporations were going to tank because of short term thinking, they could get rich by shorting the stock.
Alas, the market can remain irrational longer than I can remain solvent.
Looking at a chart of the S&P 500 over decades, it's hard to see how anyone could make money by betting on corporations only being interested in short term results.
Alas, the market can remain irrational longer than I can remain solvent.
Looking at a chart of the S&P 500 over decades, it's hard to see how anyone could make money by betting on corporations only being interested in short term results.
The S&P 500 is a list. 80+% of the companies on that list when it started are no longer on it.
Betting on business in general over long time periods tends to be a winning proposition. Betting on an individual company tends to be less of a winner in general.
Looking at a chart of the S&P 500 over decades, it's hard to see how anyone could make money by betting on corporations only being interested in short term results.
The S&P 500 is a list. 80+% of the companies on that list when it started are no longer on it. Betting on business in general over long time periods tends to be a winning proposition. Betting on an individual company tends to be less of a winner in general.
Businesses do tend to fail eventually. Their business model become obsolete, the market for their product fades away, they strangle themselves with bureaucracy, they zig instead of zag. That isn't short-term-itis.
But you cannot grow a small company into a large one by concentrating on short term profits. The S&P 500 is composed of 500 large companies.
Imagine if you were selling MSFT short every quarter since they IPO'd in the '80s.
Well if you are very against capitalism, that would be pretty bad, but ONLY if you are then also a hypocrite working for amounts of money that would make anyone not in the top 20 percent of the world population's eyes pop; Deduct extra points if you ever accepted stock options, ever tried to start a startup or did a side hustle because you wanted MORE than the bare minimum you need to survive. (Like those capitalist…
Whew, it's like strawman bingo!!
You're right, depending on what someone's position is. If someone full on HATES capitalism, then I don't think it's a strawman. But if someone is an average mixed economy guy, sure then it would be an unfair strawman I agree. Also it's a bit tongue in the cheek, because I got a bit tired seeing a lot of anti-capitalist rants here in HN comments that likely come from iPhone socialists typing this while living lives absolutely blessed by the fruits of capitalism. It's prettt easy to disagree about the amount of capitalism we want in our society, but to be anti-capitalist? Seems weird and hypocritical if you are a highly paid tech worker that uses most of his/her money for their own benefit, or otherwise personally acting very "capitalist" in your own life but wishing everyone else to act more socialist.
It's politics that prevents the construction of cheap housing, not capitalism.
Capitalism is a subset of politics
But capitalism doesn't have an interest in prohibiting housing being built in certain areas or limiting density to a fraction of what was possible 130 years ago.
Thank you for posting this! I just spent a very enjoyable hour there and I’m sad others won’t be able to do the same in future.
They appear to work with many institutions in a consultancy capacity so I hope that this will still continue in future even though the museum itself has to close.
Yeah I don't agree that this proves something about capitalism but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive.
It's politics that prevents the construction of cheap housing, not capitalism.
Don't you think that a lot of that politics stems from politicians wanting the value of houses in places where they (or their friends) live to go up rather than down though?