Posted on 03/18/2023 9:10:11 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
The early venture investments in computers, networking, optical communications, and the Internet paid off handsomely. Then came early Internet tools and apps that paid off. Now, with that infrastructure in place and basic programs and apps done, there is a lot less space to make your mark and make your fortune.
That is exactly why Silicon Valley and Venture Capital rotate to different themes: biotech, rebuilding the electricity grid, “green power,” climate. The easy pickings are long gone, so “green” and “climate” have to create useless solutions to mythical problems that only the government, woke banks, and woke PCs will pay for. Those people are in it to pluck those chickens and retire happily ever after without ever delivering a useful product.
“Green” has meant “SCAM” for decades now.
Airbnb, which once served as a way to temporarily rent out an extra room or a pied-à-terre, has now grown so large that it’s warping the housing market in some parts of the country.
Everything is a fashion industry. We need new things faster we have been trained. out with the old. Everyone jumps on the fashion industry of the day, and there is a new one tomorrow.
Politics is very much a fashion industry...............
“It is also hard not to be a little resentful of Silicon Valley’s immense wealth if you live in the shadow of it.”
We live right in the middle of it. Houses still go on the market for $4 million, sell in ten days, and are bought by young couples barely 30 with two or three very young children. They invariably drive Teslas, Lambos, McLarens, or Ferraris. And nine times out of ten, they are from India or China.
This place is a victim of its own success. With all this money awash around here, the developers are transforming our once-cute little downtown areas into mini Manhattans. Then the single-party Sacramento passes rules that tell our little town of 25,000 that we are REQUIRED to build 3,000 “affordable” housing units. And no more natural gas for anybody, either.
The state pays so much to illegals and homeless that our roads are literally crumbling. I worked in a lot of third-world countries in my early career and the roads there were not as bad as what we have here. Forty miles of El Camino Real have fallen to pieces and you have to constantly dodge the massive, car-destroying potholes.
This is a very, very sick place. But the weather and scenery are still nice if you can blot all the horrendous demise out.
I sure see a lot more of solutions in search of problems. Your post is well stated and I echo it. Fortunes can still be made but you have to get a lot of hype help from the likes of Motley Fool [so appropriately named]. I see a lot of Tech investment waves like Chinchillas and Llamas or Alpaca crazes for some reason. I wonder why?. Then there was the Emu a sure path to riches.
The crisis of the gas stove for example that is being created before our unbelieving eyes. No notice of proposed rule making is being posted. Instead the CPSC and EPA are posting a request for research to identify the problem they want to regulate.
If this alone is not evidence that we have far too much gooberment in our lives and that the beast is now controlling us I hav never seen it.
Nothing can’t be improved but once the foundation is laid for an industry only real innovation can experience the same value creation.
Yes, everything is a fashion now. Just look at Instagram, TikTok, etc. That created the rise of “influencers” (aka, useless people) who can make a lot of money by being fashion-forward.
Yes, everything is a fashion now.
Yes. Then fashion moved to furniture. I briefly dated a woman back in 1979 or so (one date, I think) who was in the interior decorating business. She told me that you can never get ahead of furniture fashion because, during the 6-8 weeks to make and deliver your furniture to you, fashions have changed and your new furniture is hopelessly out of fashion.
She was dead serious. And this was in the era of magazines, newspapers and radio talk shows, too!
Like I said I briefly dated her. After hearing that nonsense, I never called her back. One date was enough of that bosh.
Besides oil and gas not a hell of a lot came out of the fortunes put into equally green energy schemes of the energy crisis.
Shale oil anyone?
Coal bed methane?
Syngas? Synthetic oil?
Just to name two that had billions (in today’s worthless dollars) poured into them.
How many of these green ventures and tech headliners will ever earn a fraction of their speculative market cap? I know one guy who is now a guest of the federal prison system invited by the SEC who once said that a stock company is the closest thing you can ever have to a printing press for money in the basement.
everything is a fashion now
I dated a gal in home ec in college. She said to me once, “do you know why emerald green is the popular color this fall?”
Being a dumb farm kid, I said “no, hadn’t thought about it.”
“Emerald green was picked by a committee 3 years ago. Then the dye makers started work, the cloth makers started work, the designers started work, marketing started, etc.”
“Emerald green did not happen by accident.”
so......................... what we are seeing now in politics, business, etc. did not happend by accident but by desigan.
NOW THE GOOD NEWS IS WE CAN CREATE FASHION ALSO.
MAGA!
How many of these green ventures and tech headliners will ever earn a fraction of their speculative market cap? I know one guy who has been a guest of the federal prison system, invited by the SEC, who once said that a stock company is the closest thing you can ever have to a printing press for money in the basement.
That’s pretty much it. And I’m sure a few bucks go to Republicans, as well, just to keep them happy.
Excellent post. Some days keeping up with constant software updates, and adding APPS you don’t have time to understand gives me a stressful day, or two I can tell you.
a stock company is the closest thing you can ever have to a printing press for money in the basement.
Once the easy cash flow stops, things change.
CASH FLOW AFFECTS MGT MORE THAN MGT AFFECTS CASHFLOW.
If I win the lottery tomorrow I start making stupid decisions. If I lose my job tomorrow, I make better decisions.
No company (so far, at least) has gone bankrupt because it ran out of “woke”. Money, however.....
Blotting out the horrendous demise is a daily effort of mine. No seems to it, every day we are blasted with a new demand, threat or outrage. Just one day I would like not to hear from the gooberment about anything.
As for the sprawl, I retired on the state highway I grew up on. Sixty or more years ago I’d lie awake at night with the windows open listening for the sound of a distant car approach and fade as it passed by. Now, it is a steady din of noise.
The rural water line installed in the early 70s is now on its second expansion in the seven years since I returned home. First a six inch line, then an 8” and now a third line of 12” to replace the original 6” line.
Momma read to us a children’s book by Virginia Lee Burton “The Little House” from peaceful country to surrounded by city. That book was from 1943. I feel like that little house. Now a child doesn’t even need a Momma to read the book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-UnakYw7A
This is no voice like Mom’s. I got a load of fuel out here one day. The driver had to call the house and Mom answered to give him directions. When he got here he said: “Who was that lady on the phone? I could listen to her all day.” I laughed, “That was my Momma.”
The world I knew is crumbling and changing far too fast for me. When my time comes I hope I’m ready and worthy of better things.
The transformation of our nation is a ghastly sight indeed. It causes me to weep for those who have never known better and never will.
On decisions, oh yes I have seen that flush with cash effect many times and wonderes aloud why we could not discipline to manage in good times like we sometimes do in lean. Never happens though. We lurch from crisis to crisis.
I think I counted nine busts in the 40 years of the oilfield.
This was the largest MONEY LAUNDERING episode in history.
This “bank” was run by a collection freaks and America haters. The fake collapse was arranged so the Democrat/communist could wash the dirty money they need to steal the next election.
But they didn't.
This is just exploiting SVB as an opportunity to rant.
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