[nthj]

> For early-stage startups though, sometimes the challenge is more in actually reaching the stage where there's anything to tax

Sure, I get that. I live in the startup world too. I just disagree that it's the government's job to take my money and give it to you — and, of course, vice versa: I won't ask the government to take your money and give it to me.

We already have a solution for the problem you bring up. It's called investing. You exchange a percentage of your company for the capital you need to get going. If a startup has trouble convincing an angel investor to part with his money, he may need to revisit his business idea or iterate a bit further. That's a good thing, it helps improve the startup.

But "government money" is really my money, and you're proposing that the government force me to fund startups that have been unable to secure angel investment. To be blunt, this seems really lame. I'd rather keep my money that I've worked hard for and invest it into my own ventures.

[I should also note this is a debate of principles for me: I'm not saying "oh in my opinion startups aren't worth my tax dollars", so much as "government is inefficient at everything, and $PROPOSAL is a subset of everything, therefore, government shouldn't be $PROPOSAL when another solution already exists.", where $PROPOSAL = 'funding startups' in this instance.]

[plantedd]

You're right, it's a difference about the principles of the matter and no doubt we disagree over the government's role (especially in an economic downturn). Setting that to one side though, the truth is that the government is spending your tax dollars already and I'm suggesting that there may be a better way for them to do it.

[crusso]

the government is spending your tax dollars already

They should be spending a lot less of them, shouldn't they?

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

I mean, what business would ever be allowed to spend money endlessly without thought to income? Why do we let the government do it?

Besides, we already have angel funding, ycombinator, venture capital, self funding, debt funding, crowd funding, etc.

http://www.instigatorblog.com/an-introductory-guide-to-start...

We should not be taking tax money by force from some to fund the next facebook.

[bruceb]

The gov't isn't a business. If it were it would not be serving everyone. The post office (sorta of a gov't/business half breed) would charge you more to send a letter from Miami to Fairbanks, Alaska than from your town to the next town 10 miles down the road. Gov't has more responsibility than a business.

There are plenty of business with large amounts of debt.

This being said I don't back the proposal.

[crusso]

The gov't isn't a business.

Right. Businesses have more direct financial accountability. That's why the government stinks at doing business-like things and I'm objecting to a proposal that thinks government should do more business-like things.

Not sure what your point is with the post office. It's a great example of the government trying to do something that business came along and did ten times better - accomplishing things that the post office said were impossible like overnight delivery.

What's the merit in the subsidizing of people to live in out-of-the-way places? This isn't the 1800s.

There are plenty of business with large amounts of debt.

1X yearly revenue in current debt and 5X in long-term liabilities? Hardly.

People at Enron went to jail for the type of accounting shenanigans that the government considers to be common practice.

[lmm]

>Sure, I get that. I live in the startup world too. I just disagree that it's the government's job to take my money and give it to you — and, of course, vice versa: I won't ask the government to take your money and give it to me.

Fine, good for you - but that's your opinion, and one at odds with most of the electorate. Don't write as if it were obviously correct.

[nthj]

The Internet would be a really boring place if we had to prepend "It is my opinion that: " to every sentence.

[And now I'm wondering if I could write a Chrome extension to do exactly that, how hard could it be? pseudocode: `$('form').submit(function() { $('textarea').val().split('. ').map(function(){ return "It is my opinion that: " + this; } ); });`]