Technically, Pablo Escobar was a good businessman.
And there's the rub. Economics are amoral. There's nothing inherent in capitalism that says "We only make money in ways that are legal and ethical". Corruption is part of the nature of the beast. This is why we need to regulate markets.
Make a desirable product illegal, and you've improved the profitability of that product's market, by increasing friction. (As an aside - as Peter Thiel points out, in a free market, profits are driven to zero. That's just math. All profitability is derived from friction, from failure of the free market.) Society winds up attracting the least ethical businesspeople this way - the Pablo Escobars, drawn by the incredible profits that illegal products can generate.
Corruption is a similar problem. Politicians, especially executives, wind up with massive monopoly leverage that can reward or punish businesses. This creates a strong incentive to offer personal financial gain to politicians in exchange for favor. The fact that this is illegal only increases the amount of reward that must be offered.
This makes "businessman" politicians exceedingly dangerous. If they're used to shortchanging ethics in the name of profit already, the power of office is far too potentially profitable to resist.
No, remember they tried to solicit interference in our electoral process by a hostile foreign power, but were unsuccessful. Apparently that's better... for reasons which no one seems to be able to adequately explain.
There isn't actually any evidence he is worth 4 billion dollars. (And even Forbes, which barely does any work to verify this sort of stuff, has revised it down to 3 billion)
His actual personal net worth is likely closer to a few hundred million, and almost all of that is from his inheritance. He would be worth more if he had just put all of the money his father had given him into an index fund tracking the S&P 500.
Basically all of his net worth beyond that is in how he values the Trump name as a brand. This doesn't make much particular sense, as the Trump name has not helped Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Entertainment Resorts, etc. etc. etc.
Well, no, they doesn't seem to be true, but he has quite a bit net worth, as a result of generating mediocre returns on family-derived wealth. Unless he negotiated with his Creator for what family he would be issued when sent to Earth, that's not really much of an endorsement of unusually strong negotiating skills.
> and is a president of the US.
Mostly a product of an unusually weak opponent, not negotiating strength (to the extent there is anything arguably unusual about negotiations by Trump on the road to the White House, it's the “who with” and not the “how well”.)
maxxxxx|7 years ago
beat|7 years ago
And there's the rub. Economics are amoral. There's nothing inherent in capitalism that says "We only make money in ways that are legal and ethical". Corruption is part of the nature of the beast. This is why we need to regulate markets.
Make a desirable product illegal, and you've improved the profitability of that product's market, by increasing friction. (As an aside - as Peter Thiel points out, in a free market, profits are driven to zero. That's just math. All profitability is derived from friction, from failure of the free market.) Society winds up attracting the least ethical businesspeople this way - the Pablo Escobars, drawn by the incredible profits that illegal products can generate.
Corruption is a similar problem. Politicians, especially executives, wind up with massive monopoly leverage that can reward or punish businesses. This creates a strong incentive to offer personal financial gain to politicians in exchange for favor. The fact that this is illegal only increases the amount of reward that must be offered.
This makes "businessman" politicians exceedingly dangerous. If they're used to shortchanging ethics in the name of profit already, the power of office is far too potentially profitable to resist.
selectodude|7 years ago
bdcravens|7 years ago
My understanding is that Paul Manafort, Donald Jr, etc are the ones who did most of the negotiating with Natalia Veselnitskaya.
actsasbuffoon|7 years ago
cthalupa|7 years ago
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-lied-to-me-abou...
His actual personal net worth is likely closer to a few hundred million, and almost all of that is from his inheritance. He would be worth more if he had just put all of the money his father had given him into an index fund tracking the S&P 500.
Basically all of his net worth beyond that is in how he values the Trump name as a brand. This doesn't make much particular sense, as the Trump name has not helped Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Entertainment Resorts, etc. etc. etc.
He's a con man and you've been conned.
skosch|7 years ago
dragonwriter|7 years ago
Well, no, they doesn't seem to be true, but he has quite a bit net worth, as a result of generating mediocre returns on family-derived wealth. Unless he negotiated with his Creator for what family he would be issued when sent to Earth, that's not really much of an endorsement of unusually strong negotiating skills.
> and is a president of the US.
Mostly a product of an unusually weak opponent, not negotiating strength (to the extent there is anything arguably unusual about negotiations by Trump on the road to the White House, it's the “who with” and not the “how well”.)