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Comment by spprashant | Hacker News Reader

What ended up happening was right, and I am glad things are looking up now. The depositors had to be made whole and Fed in my opinion did the right thing in the end given the choices.

But I have never seen the VC community so vocally begging for instant government intervention for anything else in my life.

These VCs would be first ones to tweet about how the government agencies are a bloated mess, a revenue sink, an archaic institution that needs to sold for parts.

But when there was a fire in their backyard, they did not "innovate", "disrupt", or "take initiative". They hounded the government like entitled brats, to fix the mess which was in no small part their own doing.

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> But I have never seen the VC community so vocally begging for instant government intervention for anything else in my life.

Yup that's what we got to see this weekend - that SV libertarian "we'll take care of it ourselves" ethos.

Will claim nonstop about how society and the system just gets in the way and slows them down. Will break any rule to make more money claiming they're being helping and it's fair because they don't need back stops or safety nets just leave them be and they'll stay out of the way.

And yet the min their excess profits were at risk, they were literally begging the government to step in and save them.

Every single time I've ever seen a group claim it's fine to let them be exempt from rules of society because they'll handle their own problems, it turns out to be complete bs - because as soon as things get tough, they start asking for "society" to step in a save them.

Simply from my own life experience, every one whose ethos is eliminate regulations and oversight always turns out to a hidden "privatize profits and socialize losses".

Every single time a group claims "we don't need the support of X system or regulation we'll take care of it themselves if it happens" - it always ends up being "we didn't think we'd ever need the support that's why we wanted to cut it, but now they we're the ones in a bad situation please give us the support". It's always a lack of empathy and believing fate doesn't apply to them.

Crypto's frequent "Code is law. Oh no wait, were being screwed, code isn't law, let's fork the system."

"Don't bail them out anyone who asks for a bailout is an idiot and deserves to be punished. No we need bailouts now to keep our returns.!"

"Get rid of banking regulations they just are overhead and block innovation. Oh no, were about to destroy the economy by being reckless in the exact ways those regulations were meant to prevent."

There is a reason that every success group of humans have evolved into a society with social benefits being prioritize with individual benefit. Anyone who thinks a society can function solely by ignoring and not regulating societal impact of actions is incredibly naive.

>Anyone who thinks a society can function solely by ignoring and not regulating societal impact of actions is incredibly naive.

In this case market failure would be the intended feedback mechanism. There's also the larger context of years of artificially cheap credit to consider. Lastly, there are malign incentives around banks buying treasury bonds, thereby loaning cash to the gov.

I agree. Changing the rules in the middle of the game isn't Hoyle. Not sure that the conclusion, "we need more power in the hands of capricious referees" follows.

> The depositors had to be made whole

What is your basis for this assertion? The words used don't even say they 'should be' made hole, but declare by fiat that it must happen.

Late stage capitalism: privatize the wins, socialize the losses.

> These VCs would be first ones to tweet about how the government agencies are a bloated mess, a revenue sink, an archaic institution that needs to sold for parts.

That's often the truth. The government does a lot of bad things, and a lot of regulations are bad. When someone complains about the government it doesn't mean they also oppose the good things the government does, and it doesn't mean they oppose the concept of government.

Most VCs and major tech CEOs are Democrats. Look at their political contributions.

You do not set up shop in blue California districts, and not donate to Democrats. I do not think this necessarily correlates to the community actually being left wing. They actively lobby for reduced taxes, deregulation, and reduced worker rights.

When the pandemic struck, there were a good bunch of them who couldn't wait to move to Texas or Florida.

> When the pandemic struck, there were a good bunch of them who couldn't wait to move to Texas or Florida.

No, there were a few loud ones. Most of them stayed.

Specifically, the loudest ones were the Republican party supporters: Elon Musk and Larry Ellison.

They also lobby for government subsidies and other market interventions they view as beneficial to them. Most are economically liberal only as far as it is useful to them.

I'll also bet that SV executives and VCs overwhelmingly donated to Democratic presidential candidates and other Democratic candidates out of state. It's not just buying favor with California politicians.

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