[pj_mukh]

I see this take a lot, but it confuses me. There is no guarantee that LP’s would take that money and instead invest it in <tech I respect that is not AI>.

They would just as likely hoover up housing around the country or some such insanity to capitalize on the scarcity.

VC is actually a pretty effective vehicle to separate rich people from their money so society can try crazy things. You just don’t agree with this particular adventure and frankly there will never be the perfect alternative adventure.

[piva00]

Isn't the core issue that this deluge of spending on the hype inflates away adjacent companies valuation (Meta, Google, Tesla, Nvidia, etc.) where people's pensions and savings get directed towards since they become the growth stocks in the index, and when it inevitably corrects there's second/third-order effects on non-rich people?

> They would just as likely hoover up housing around the country or some such insanity to capitalize on the scarcity.

Another core issue in a hyper-financialised economy, the money doesn't get invested in what would be best for society, it keeps chasing either risky endeavours or parked in presumed safe assets (such as housing), inflating away asset classes. Where are the incentives to invest in foundational areas which do compound to make a society have resilient growth, like infrastructure: energy, transportation, etc.? It feels like without government direction to spend in big projects there's simply no appetite from the private, hyper-financialised, system to do the work, unless there's potential to get 10-100x returns. Is that good for society at large?

If hyper-financialisation is not helping the overall economy, and society to become better, why the hell should we still (in the Western world) pursue that? If all it can do is increasingly chase the extremes: hyper-growth vs extremely safe assets, is it any good anymore?

[pj_mukh]

I think if you want the public to accept that the government will be a better shepherd of this money than a decentralized smattering of individuals then the government should provide evidence for this, once it actually opens up from a dysfunctional shutdown.

At least in the American context everything from California High Speed rail to bloated defense spending has shown that VC’s are much better shepherds of their own money.

[mordae]

Most people wouldn't vote or participate in this investment craze. Maybe we shouldn't let unelected lucky nobodies decide how we invest our time for us.

[pj_mukh]

I’m not saying don’t tax them or let them influence politics.

I’m saying letting them go to space or turning sand into intelligence is infinitely better than buying land and charging us rent (what most rich people have done in history).