[lotsofpulp]

> For whatever reason we don’t as a society let “tech” markets mature. We demand growth long after everyone is satisfied.

That reason is people like more money than less money. No one logs into their brokerage account and invests in Sonos because they have a great product that is growing (or shrinking) at the rate of the speaker market.

People want to see their year end report at least equal the broad market returns.

The directive for all business leaders is to hit those benchmark returns, not pump out a solid speaker for however many years.

And if a private business owner operates their company in a way that lags the market’s returns, then they are basically doing charity work. They’re going to have to pay a lot of cash compared to their competitors who can use RSUs to incentivize employees.

[benreesman]

Well, we could at least examine the idea of paying executives over a longer time horizon.

Clearly everyone likes money. We could pay them for good things rather than the transient illusion of good things.

Yes it would be imperfect. No it wouldn’t be worse than this mess. Bell Labs didn’t invent the transistor on this model, JFK didn’t send us to the moon on this model.

This “privatize the commons of a century of effective public/private partnership” model is going rather shit in fact.

[lotsofpulp]

>Well, we could at least examine the idea of paying executives over a longer time horizon.

Every publicly listed business already does this, in the form of stock grants and options with various targets to hit at various intervals. See bottom of page 51 for an example:

https://investor.apple.com/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/d...

It’s where all those rage bait headlines of extreme executive compensation come from, from maturing equity granted before the stock appreciated a good amount over the course of a few years.

[benreesman]

There is absolutely no basis for the sweeping, extraordinary claim that “every publicly listed business” is managed and incentivized around sustainable long-term value.

I hate to be aggressive but it’s really pretty godawful that people let absurd, corrosive claims like this fly. There is a creeping normalcy to weird Art Laffer talking points and weird Milton Friedman Freak Offs with no evidence. Things suck for the typical person since Dick Cheney and Art Laffer started “cutting taxes”.

You’re wrong in a way that demands a complete ignorance of everything from news to history to human empathy.

This mindset needs fucking therapy and where therapy fails the legal system for a fucking change.

[lotsofpulp]

> Well, we could at least examine the idea of paying executives over a longer time horizon.

This is not

> There is absolutely no basis for the sweeping, extraordinary claim that “every publicly listed business” is managed and incentivized around sustainable long-term value.

There has been plenty of research into figuring out how executive compensation can be tied to longer term performance, but “sustainable long term value” is such a nebulous term, I have no idea what it could mean other than a fantasy where people are able to magically measure everything they want.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_compensation

I only meant to highlight the fact that it is standard practice at publicly listed businesses to hire consultants whose job it is to figure out how to align executives and reward them for achieving long term goals.

Maybe you think the current timetables are not long term enough, or the measures are not correct, but it’s not as if cash is being handed out Willy nilly.

[benreesman]

NVIDIA is posting profit margins up there with the Dutch East India Company (check it) on the back of the “agents” that are about to obsolete not just programmers specifically but white collar workers generally.

We’re handing out trillions in cap for press releases.

What on God’s green earth the fuck are you talking about?

Willy nilly? Will Wonka with a chocolate factory is closer to earth.

[consp]

And NVidia is pretty much a monopoly in its field like the VoC was, only not legally bound. But the AI boom is pretty much a tulip mania at this point so I would hedge my bets.