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- Jul 1, 2019
- 105
- 145
Apologies in advance if this ruffles feathers, and it probably should, but hear me out completely before you start seeing red.
For much of America's history, more often than not, men received money in return for services and for goods. Those who were the best at providing services or those who excelled in their craft at producing goods naturally became the most affluent. But over time, as generation passed wealth on to generation, something really f***ed up happened. Wealth became concentrated and controlled not by those who had fought for it, but it became largely controlled by those who had inherited it.
The historical ideal for a righteous ruler is the warrior king. The man who fought his way to the top and gives graciously back to the people because he is both wise and he is cogniscent of their struggles. The king that all people should fear, however, is the warrior king's son. He has had everything that his father never grew up with, and he knows nothing of struggle and he has neither empathy nor conviction to provide value.
I believe, what we are seeing today with large wealth concentrations in the hands of about 150 people is deeply emblematic of a weak society, molded by comfort and men having gotten high off of the tailwinds of a post world war 2 boom. The financial instruments created by wall street were derived as a means to create value without producing value, and as such money has lost its very legitimacy. This is why we see all of these alternative currencies popping up. Like MJ says in his book, the game is rigged. But the mediums in which people can escape this game through establishing businesses have all but disappeared as large monopolistic entities have taken market share of almost every domain. We see desperate "gurus" scamming and conning their way to fortunes, we see pump and dump schemes in stocks and crypto, and we find that a NJ deli that is not even hopen has a stock market valuation of $100 million (true story).
I work on wall street. I live in the city. And many of my friends work in private equity. Their jobs consist of buying businesses, eliminating redundant departments, saddling them up with debt which they can write off via tax loopholes, and then overhiring employees (who essentially don't have any work to do but showing headcount growth increases your EBITDA multiplier at exit). The best part, they assume NO RISK. That is the tradeoff entrepreneurs are supposed to take... risk/reward. How long can a country persist where the bulk of its money is made through cannibalizing businesses and using the government as a slush fund? Airlines have been bailed out 66 times since 2000. Every company in the city is in "hypergrowth", which is a fancy way of saying a ponzi scheme from series a to b to c to d.
We are in a glass house and the rest of the world is really pissed off from things we have done, and they have a lot of rocks.
For much of America's history, more often than not, men received money in return for services and for goods. Those who were the best at providing services or those who excelled in their craft at producing goods naturally became the most affluent. But over time, as generation passed wealth on to generation, something really f***ed up happened. Wealth became concentrated and controlled not by those who had fought for it, but it became largely controlled by those who had inherited it.
The historical ideal for a righteous ruler is the warrior king. The man who fought his way to the top and gives graciously back to the people because he is both wise and he is cogniscent of their struggles. The king that all people should fear, however, is the warrior king's son. He has had everything that his father never grew up with, and he knows nothing of struggle and he has neither empathy nor conviction to provide value.
I believe, what we are seeing today with large wealth concentrations in the hands of about 150 people is deeply emblematic of a weak society, molded by comfort and men having gotten high off of the tailwinds of a post world war 2 boom. The financial instruments created by wall street were derived as a means to create value without producing value, and as such money has lost its very legitimacy. This is why we see all of these alternative currencies popping up. Like MJ says in his book, the game is rigged. But the mediums in which people can escape this game through establishing businesses have all but disappeared as large monopolistic entities have taken market share of almost every domain. We see desperate "gurus" scamming and conning their way to fortunes, we see pump and dump schemes in stocks and crypto, and we find that a NJ deli that is not even hopen has a stock market valuation of $100 million (true story).
I work on wall street. I live in the city. And many of my friends work in private equity. Their jobs consist of buying businesses, eliminating redundant departments, saddling them up with debt which they can write off via tax loopholes, and then overhiring employees (who essentially don't have any work to do but showing headcount growth increases your EBITDA multiplier at exit). The best part, they assume NO RISK. That is the tradeoff entrepreneurs are supposed to take... risk/reward. How long can a country persist where the bulk of its money is made through cannibalizing businesses and using the government as a slush fund? Airlines have been bailed out 66 times since 2000. Every company in the city is in "hypergrowth", which is a fancy way of saying a ponzi scheme from series a to b to c to d.
We are in a glass house and the rest of the world is really pissed off from things we have done, and they have a lot of rocks.
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