Makes people mad, but it's true. People who rest and reap profits orders of magnitude above those who work, due only to the fact that they hold capital, are leeches on society.
I see. And when those leeches lend capital for a new startup effort that otherwise wouldn't happen... allowing a business to form, a product to develop, an industry to blossom, on an accelerated timescale, what then? Would you still brand this role a parasite?
I realize that this sort of anticapitalist nonsense is currently fashionable in university, but the irony of it being spouted on ycombinator (which might have something to do with investors, after all) is really quite amusing.
> I see. And when those leeches lend capital for a new startup effort that otherwise wouldn't happen... allowing a business to form, a product to develop, an industry to blossom, on an accelerated timescale, what then? Would you still brand this role a parasite?
How is that qualitatively different from a medieval lord who chooses to permit peasants to work his fields for their survival, in exchange for growing wealthy off the fruits of their labor?
The rich graciously permitting the rest of us to share a small portion of their wealth, so that we can work to make them more wealth while incidentally keeping a bit for ourselves, is the basis for much of our society; but that doesn't mean there's no other way to do it, nor does it make them inherently virtuous.
(I'm not saying they're inherently monstrous, either. Many capitalists may be well-meaning and try to use their money for good, and that is laudable. But don't pretend that the mere fact of having and investing money makes one a hero.)
> I realize that this sort of anticapitalist nonsense is currently fashionable in university
It's been fashionable in every place and time where abusive capitalists have existed.
> but the irony of it being spouted on ycombinator (which might have something to do with investors, after all) is really quite amusing.
The header up there at the top of the page says "Hacker News". It's fashionable right now to imagine that every hacker yearns for a West Coast startup and loads of venture capital, but it's not actually true.
Just because a CEO spends their day making high-level decisions because they are literally delegating tasks to tens of thousands of people doesn't mean that they are "resting".
This is probably the best description of what we see of him that I have ever seen. Combine that with his verbal judo and one should not be shocked that he was successful.
