[sally888]

"the government should absolutely intervene and help the newcomers"

Where do you draw the line on this? Should all newcomers be subsidized? Every YC startup that wants to enter the automobile sector should be federally subsidized? What about newcomers in other industries like healthcare, banking, and mining? Should those be subsidized too?

[jared314]

> Where do you draw the line on this?

Wherever the elected officials want to. Generally it is a big hammer and is applied to sectors, so there is an expectation of low success rates. That is why the government is doing it, and not private investors. This time they supported the "green" technology sector through allowing companies to apply for low interest loans, and giving consumers tax credits for those items. The next elected administration / congress might try to encourage the airline industry with fewer fuel taxes, the clothing industry with import tariffs, or support USPS by taxing the internet. You never quite know what they might do, you just hope they don't do it for very long.

[stcredzero]

> Where do you draw the line on this?

In the right place.

EDIT: HN really can't take a joke. Sigh

[tokipin]

i just got a flash of genius. what if instead of just up and down vote arrows, there were also left and right vote arrows, where each vote would move the post one pixel to the left/right (you would no longer be able to vote up/down). this would lead to awesome positioning wars, or even races to see which post could first cross the right edge of a 1080p monitor