Funny that Elon and his sycophants would refer to the rest of us as “takers.” This coming from the guy who’s been handed billions of dollars of taxpayer money to start and run businesses that fail profitability for decades. And the only reason that Tesla is profitable now is because of a government program that allows the company to sell carbon credits. And where does a portion of the money for this program come from??? Oh, that would be from all of us “takers”. Our taxpayer dollars. Hypocrisy of the billionaire class, and their shills, knows no bounds.
Isn't it just as plausible that the self-interest of merchants was a gentler master than the passions of princes because merchants were many and had minimal power by comparison to the princes? Did any of the early theorists of state imagine the local dry goods trader having resources comparable to those of a princely state?
I have always thought that, if anything, Trump's followers are more deranged than his critics. So, who is really suffering from TDS the most? It seems this can be applied to billionaires, too.
When I was about 10, I asked my father, then a successful lawyer and later a judge and U.S. Congressman, where kings came from. His answer: They were the biggest robbers.
And there's Marc Andreessen, he of the "techno-optimist" persuasion, again calling for clearing the runways for unabated technology piloted by these same deranged princes and merchants, but not for their own self-delectation and omnipotence, rather for the greater good of society, something-something. Andreessen is trying to establish himself as a/the philosopher par excellence of techno-feudalism, but Thiel has done him one better, as the more menacing if not disturbingly eccentric "whisperer" to the Valley's great and good.
Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, et al, are the amoral avatars of runaway capitalism, and who are now using portions of their Croesus-like wealth to buy politicians, up to and including presidents, to ensure their primacy in a grossly inequitable world, full stop.
Interesting article. Eccentric, weird or not, I call it Excessive Wealth Wasting Disease. Symptoms: unmitigated greed, lust for power, self-fulfilling feedback loops, utter lack of empathy. Prognosis: Deadly for humanity
How odd that bold, objective independent thinker Tyler Cowen has failed to grasp that the people said to have "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (a meme spread to bold objective independent thinkers by a Russian disinformation campaign) have been proved right. By modeling his epithet on a theory proved to be wrong, he is practically telling you that he is also wrong.
$NAME Derangement Syndrome implies that opposition to $NAME is irrational without ever having to make that case. Its an incredibly lazy sneer at best, and interesting its become a goto insult for our leaders. Perfectly in character for Cowen.
Once upon a time it was conventional Silicon Valley wisdom that the skill set of a Founder (risk-taking, charismatic leadership, intense focus on growth at any cost) were a poor fit for leading a "mature" established company. If you were IBM stability was a virtue protecting your dominance and reputation. The norm was to hand over the reins once some target was reached, leaving the Founder wealthy and free to go Innovate elsewhere.
There's a fundamental disconnect between our notorious Founders and any specific company. Musk is the exception that proves the rule since the vsluation of his companies has nothing to do with their performance or stability. The rest are simply private investment banks with delusions of greatness because of their power based on their wealth and the mythology of themselves as Founders, innovators, disruptors whose bets always pay off in the end so proven correct about everything. They will cling to this story until they die, they have nothing else.
There is a Thai saying,"at high tide, fish eat ants. At low tide, ants eat fish." If we have the will and the courage to do so, we can restrain the billionaire class. Interestingly, Thiel has moved to Argentina. Perhaps he knows low tide is coming.
It's incredibly ironic that TE卐LA was spiraling down the drain, and the only thing to save it was a huge loan from the Obama administration. Otherwise, none of us would even have heard of Mu卐kRat. He'd be a nobody.
"Bringing together Tim’s ideas with deranged billionaire syndrome helps clarify how the stripping of restraints can combine with circumstances to produce a more generalized frenzy."
I loved this line, because it's exactly what I've been trying to express. Though it's not only tied to the individual billionaires, but the kingdoms (tech companies) they control.
The complete erosion of friction and restraints on tech power concentration, coupled with the unique dependencies these systems create, will do unimaginable harm to humanity if we idly sit by and let it happen.
Back in 2008 Noam Wasserman wrote an HBR article that later became a book - Founders Dilemma - where he said startup founders faced a choice: be rich or be king. Funny how it appears many eschewed that dichotomy and said “both!” — that said, Wasserman’s study was first company founders and didn’t take into account the preferential attachment and accumulation of control/ reputation/wealth/more control as time went on.
Funny that Elon and his sycophants would refer to the rest of us as “takers.” This coming from the guy who’s been handed billions of dollars of taxpayer money to start and run businesses that fail profitability for decades. And the only reason that Tesla is profitable now is because of a government program that allows the company to sell carbon credits. And where does a portion of the money for this program come from??? Oh, that would be from all of us “takers”. Our taxpayer dollars. Hypocrisy of the billionaire class, and their shills, knows no bounds.
Isn't it just as plausible that the self-interest of merchants was a gentler master than the passions of princes because merchants were many and had minimal power by comparison to the princes? Did any of the early theorists of state imagine the local dry goods trader having resources comparable to those of a princely state?
I have always thought that, if anything, Trump's followers are more deranged than his critics. So, who is really suffering from TDS the most? It seems this can be applied to billionaires, too.
When I was about 10, I asked my father, then a successful lawyer and later a judge and U.S. Congressman, where kings came from. His answer: They were the biggest robbers.
And there's Marc Andreessen, he of the "techno-optimist" persuasion, again calling for clearing the runways for unabated technology piloted by these same deranged princes and merchants, but not for their own self-delectation and omnipotence, rather for the greater good of society, something-something. Andreessen is trying to establish himself as a/the philosopher par excellence of techno-feudalism, but Thiel has done him one better, as the more menacing if not disturbingly eccentric "whisperer" to the Valley's great and good.
Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, et al, are the amoral avatars of runaway capitalism, and who are now using portions of their Croesus-like wealth to buy politicians, up to and including presidents, to ensure their primacy in a grossly inequitable world, full stop.
They've been smoking their own dope way too long. There is no polite way of saying this.
And don't forget their numero uno "philosopher" Curtis Yarvin, aka, Mencius Moldbug.
Elon could buy control of the Senate. Is that a "Taking"?
Interesting article. Eccentric, weird or not, I call it Excessive Wealth Wasting Disease. Symptoms: unmitigated greed, lust for power, self-fulfilling feedback loops, utter lack of empathy. Prognosis: Deadly for humanity
How odd that bold, objective independent thinker Tyler Cowen has failed to grasp that the people said to have "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (a meme spread to bold objective independent thinkers by a Russian disinformation campaign) have been proved right. By modeling his epithet on a theory proved to be wrong, he is practically telling you that he is also wrong.
$NAME Derangement Syndrome implies that opposition to $NAME is irrational without ever having to make that case. Its an incredibly lazy sneer at best, and interesting its become a goto insult for our leaders. Perfectly in character for Cowen.
Once upon a time it was conventional Silicon Valley wisdom that the skill set of a Founder (risk-taking, charismatic leadership, intense focus on growth at any cost) were a poor fit for leading a "mature" established company. If you were IBM stability was a virtue protecting your dominance and reputation. The norm was to hand over the reins once some target was reached, leaving the Founder wealthy and free to go Innovate elsewhere.
There's a fundamental disconnect between our notorious Founders and any specific company. Musk is the exception that proves the rule since the vsluation of his companies has nothing to do with their performance or stability. The rest are simply private investment banks with delusions of greatness because of their power based on their wealth and the mythology of themselves as Founders, innovators, disruptors whose bets always pay off in the end so proven correct about everything. They will cling to this story until they die, they have nothing else.
I reached the same conclusion in a Twitter thread in 2021 where I labeled billionaire derangement charismatic epistemology.
https://books.venkateshrao.com/twitterbook/read/chapters/chapter_1421268674313220102.html
There is a Thai saying,"at high tide, fish eat ants. At low tide, ants eat fish." If we have the will and the courage to do so, we can restrain the billionaire class. Interestingly, Thiel has moved to Argentina. Perhaps he knows low tide is coming.
It's incredibly ironic that TE卐LA was spiraling down the drain, and the only thing to save it was a huge loan from the Obama administration. Otherwise, none of us would even have heard of Mu卐kRat. He'd be a nobody.
"Bringing together Tim’s ideas with deranged billionaire syndrome helps clarify how the stripping of restraints can combine with circumstances to produce a more generalized frenzy."
I loved this line, because it's exactly what I've been trying to express. Though it's not only tied to the individual billionaires, but the kingdoms (tech companies) they control.
The complete erosion of friction and restraints on tech power concentration, coupled with the unique dependencies these systems create, will do unimaginable harm to humanity if we idly sit by and let it happen.
This kind of self delusion, aka madness, would be really funny if it weren't so dangerous.
Back in 2008 Noam Wasserman wrote an HBR article that later became a book - Founders Dilemma - where he said startup founders faced a choice: be rich or be king. Funny how it appears many eschewed that dichotomy and said “both!” — that said, Wasserman’s study was first company founders and didn’t take into account the preferential attachment and accumulation of control/ reputation/wealth/more control as time went on.