Robert 3rd Reich no fan of Horatio Alger

[ElNono]

This is just a by-product of the services economy, which is why I was never a big fan of putting it front and center.

Companies like Facebook, ebay, etc, are just giant marketing platforms whose perceived value is largely guesstimated based on how many people peek through their virtual window. They sell no actual product, and there's near zero innovation on the tech aspects of their platforms. Most of them weren't even making money before filing for an IPO. It's even worse than the dot-com bubble, because during that bubble, there were some actual innovation and companies selling products.

IMO, some of these companies are going to pop just like MySpace popped, and it's going to get real ugly real quick. They're also extremely risky and damaging to the economy, especially when you get to these billion dollar amounts.

[DarrinS]

This is just a by-product of the services economy, which is why I was never a big fan of putting it front and center.

Companies like Facebook, ebay, etc, are just giant marketing platforms whose perceived value is largely guesstimated based on how many people peek through their virtual window. They sell no actual product, and there's near zero innovation on the tech aspects of their platforms. Most of them weren't even making money before filing for an IPO. It's even worse than the dot-com bubble, because during that bubble, there were some actual innovation and companies selling products.

IMO, some of these companies are going to pop just like MySpace popped, and it's going to get real ugly real quick. They're also extremely risky and damaging to the economy, especially when you get to these billion dollar amounts.

I mostly agree with that.


Good article, btw --> http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyols...-billion-baby/

[ElNono]

^ thanks

[boutons_deux]

Return on liquid capital far exceeds return on return on building stuff

Jack Welch fired 1000s of GE engineers and spent their salaries in the wall st casino

[Th'Pusher]

'In the emerging economy, there's no longer any correlation between the size of a customer base and the number of employees necessary to serve them. In fact, the combination of digital technologies with huge network effects is pushing the ratio of employees to customers to new lows (WhatsApp's 55 employees are all its 450 million customers need). "


So, because they don't require thousands of employees to service their customers, they're contributing to inequality? Pretty weak stuff.

Can you not do basic math? Which one has a more equitable distribution? $19b divided by 55 (I realize these are not the actual figures) or $19b divided by 55k? It's basic math. It's not a bad thing in and of itself, it's just a reality of the current economy.

[scott]

'In the emerging economy, there's no longer any correlation between the size of a customer base and the number of employees necessary to serve them. In fact, the combination of digital technologies with huge network effects is pushing the ratio of employees to customers to new lows (WhatsApp's 55 employees are all its 450 million customers need). "


So, because they don't require thousands of employees to service their customers, they're contributing to inequality? Pretty weak stuff.

Actually, yes. There is a disconnect between labor inputs and real product, thus resulting in real wage inequality. This isn't an indictment of the software company, merely an observation of reality.

Take the example to its end: Richie Rich develops technology that allows the production of all his products to occur without any employees, and sheds $6B of payroll which now goes straight into his pocket as incremental revenue. The result is increased inequality between Mr Rich and the now unemployed RichCorp expats.

This is not a difficult concept to grasp.

[scott]

Can you not do basic math? Which one has a more equitable distribution? $19b divided by 55 (I realize these are not the actual figures) or $19b divided by 55k? It's basic math. It's not a bad thing in and of itself, it's just a reality of the current economy.

Beat me to it