“It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
1–10 of 384 posts
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#2How do countries with good social safety nets factor in here? In EU people are definitely not nearly as likely to start their own business as in the US, and many people that would otherwise be labelled 'jobless' (or on the dole) are 'self employed' instead.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#3It's a nice mini soap opera but the core is that actually they agree but have a different definition of "rich kids".
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#4I think if Paul G. came out a little less strong at the beginning - without 'bullshit' - this wouldn't be an issue.
On the other hand there is the habit nowadays of having to guard and specify ones statements zealously in order not to get called out for something a reasonably lenient reading would allow, but calling something 'bullshit' probably doesn't get you into that other hand category.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#5How do countries with good social safety nets factor in here? In EU people are definitely not nearly as likely to start their own business as in the US, and many people that would otherwise be labelled 'jobless' (or on the dole) are 'self employed' instead.
In many EU countries, the safety net is much better if you had a job than if you had your own company. Eg in NL, if you get fired after working more than x months, you get 70% of your last salary for max 2 years while you can go find a job. But if your company goes to shit, all you can get is "bijstand" which is much lower benefits and you have to sell all your assets (eg if you owned a house, you have to sell it and move to rent, even though that's usually more pricey than the mortgage, etc) before you get it. So if your company goes bust and you come from a middle class (or higher) background, you'll probably prefer to depend on your family for a bit while finding a job (or a freelance gig etc). But if you have nothing like that to depend on, then it means that starting a company is extremely risky (I'm not sure most Dutch Uber drivers realise this).
IMO if NL really want to encourage more entrepreneurship, and if they want do so in a way that matches our culture and values, then they should create the same safety net for entrepreneurs and employees. But lots of entrepreneurs are against this because ofc this safety net also means paying more taxes. I think that's stupid. I'd gladly take a 5% pay cut if it helps make my country more entrepreneurial, and me more safe. Plus, now I buy commercial accident insurance (pays out monthly if I can't work ever again), which would also be covered by said safety net, so in effect the cost difference would be smaller than 5%.
EDIT: I'm only just seeing who I'm replying to. I think you knew the above already so I must've misunderstood your question.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#6How do countries with good social safety nets factor in here? In EU people are definitely not nearly as likely to start their own business as in the US, and many people that would otherwise be labelled 'jobless' (or on the dole) are 'self employed' instead.
I read somewhere most businesses in US are started by immigrants.
So only a person with means can immigrate to US, I guess even the people coming from India or China or Eastern Europe do have people back in home backing them financially or in other words they've enough financial moat to take risks through which they are able to jetset themsleves into new businesses.
I've this friend in Europe he's working on a startup idea once it's developed and become bit popular he plans to move it to states because of stronger private property rights and less taxes and better benefits for employers there and a bigger market.
So maybe a lot of people come to US to start a new businesses once they've some idea and implementation in their mind and enough resources to execute it.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#7I think if Paul G. came out a little less strong at the beginning - without 'bullshit' - this wouldn't be an issue. On the other hand there is the habit nowadays of having to guard and specify ones statements zealously in order not to get called out for something a reasonably lenient reading would allow, but calling something 'bullshit' probably doesn't get you into that other hand category.
Yeah that seemed way over the top
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#8I'm shaking my head right now because I can't believe people at the top is still susceptible to sampling/survivorship bias.
I've tried searching but cannot find a good empirical study of privilege and entrepreneurship correlation. However, I've found an essay paper [0] that exactly predicted this twitter drama; that entrepreneurs simultaneously present and erase this conversation about class and entrepreneurship.
The paper also concluded:
> Whereas gender, together with race, have long been foregrounded in studies of entrepreneurial identity and difference, class may be a more powerful organizing discourse, though certainly one supported by discourses of gender and race.
[0] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/135050841246489...
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#9How do countries with good social safety nets factor in here? In EU people are definitely not nearly as likely to start their own business as in the US, and many people that would otherwise be labelled 'jobless' (or on the dole) are 'self employed' instead.
I read somewhere most businesses in US are started by immigrants. So only a person with means can immigrate to US, I guess even the people coming from India or China or Eastern Europe do have people back in home backing them financially or in other words they've enough financial moat to take risks through which they are able to jetset themsleves into new businesses. I've this friend in Europe he's working on a startu…
Do remember that immigrants aren't usually trying to start the same kinds of businesses as the "natives", small businesses make a lot of sense if you want to be able to rely on yourself and not an employer who might not appreciate that you're just learning the language, and if you're willing to make use of the labour of your entire family rather than just a breadwinner.
If you're an immigrant there are small businesses that are closer to stable jobs and you can start immediately with your savings, whereas if you're a native the reason you'd start a business is because you're interested in that thing or you want to be an entrepreneur and grow that business into something bigger.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#10How do countries with good social safety nets factor in here? In EU people are definitely not nearly as likely to start their own business as in the US, and many people that would otherwise be labelled 'jobless' (or on the dole) are 'self employed' instead.
This is demonstrably untrue.
Looking at the official docs here: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-... for the US and here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06... for the UK (both are PDFs)
In the USA for the first quarter of 2016, there were 240,000 new companies. So just million in a year, assuming that trend. Also, that is all companies, including those with no employees
in 2016 for the UK in the whole year, there fore 416,000 new businesses, all of which had at least one registered employee.
The USA, in 2016 only created twice as many companies compared to the UK.
Given the gulf between population _and_ economy, I would say the US is significantly underperforming compared to the UK