[godelski]

The problem I see is that investing is happening before even basic demonstrations. Billions of dollars are being given to people who haven't even put together a slide deck.

Worse! We're throwing money at people who haven't done the basics AND experts are highly confident will fail. All while ignoring those with viable prototypes who need money to scale...

But what really gets me is that it's become commonplace to just fake tech demos. Demo is short for "demonstration" not "illustration"! You can do a "this is our vision" and that's fine, but you can't fucking call that a demo. Calling it a demo is a lie. Calling it a vision is not. It really isn't that hard to stay within the ethical lines here

[turbofreak]

Sir, this is Hacker News.

[MangoToupe]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[godelski]

It is a nice aphorism by an economy shouldn't be based on duping people. It's literally why we have regulations. Why you can't make Ponzi schemes. You literally are not allowed to lie to investors though we love to ignore the spirit in favor of the letter of the law.

[const_cast]

Lately it feels like the entire US economy is just scamming people. Everyone is disrupting the con-artist space by devising new and innovative ways to trick their own customers.

Every single website is filled to the brim with dark patterns. There's more spam these days than real content online. Even reputable companies are lying about their products. Reviews are faker than ever and nobody seems to care. Hell, even when I turn on the TV half of the products featured are very obviously scams.

[MangoToupe]

I'm happy when any (rich) investor gets scammed. Money ought to be distributed downwards.

[godelski]

Unfortunately over millennia of this happening, nothing has changed. Which is rather obvious since scamming is unethical.

You just replace one unethical person with another.

The result is you feel good but nothing meaningful changes. Maybe all those aphorisms about revenge are onto something...

[MangoToupe]

> Which is rather obvious since scamming is unethical.

So is being wealthy. There is no ethical way to get wealthy.

[godelski]

Sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy. Remember, what makes someone fiscally wealthy is still defined by culture and society. Most of our needs aren't necessities.

And I still don't think it's unethical that doctors are wealthy. I'm very happy with them making good money for their work. It doesn't mean all doctors are ethical, but certainly it is one (of several) path to make money without needing to be unethical.