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Comment by missedthecue | Hacker News Reader

I don't think things would work as well as they do now if everything was a non-profit.

I can't imagine trying to raise capital for my ideas if I had to tell investors that they would not get their money back. And I would not be able to do what I'm doing now without investors.

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What if instead of a few founders and the investors getting crazy paydays, those proceeds were paid to those who do the work, workers wouldn't need investors to buy into their ideas unless they provided a lot more value than cash. The current system is flawed in that that small group of investors drain the company of all its value and then dump it on the stock market hoping retail and index funds will pick it up. The value proposition currently sucks.

Not really. Lots of business that can run profitably have obscenely high startup costs, and hence need investors.

This is because workers aren’t pooling their own money and agreeing to accept a full share of any losses. (Historically a few have done this; sometimes it works.)

A company shouldn’t blow all its revenue on labor for the same reason I don’t blow all my wages on pizza. I have many other needs, including the building I live in.

Especially in tech, this is impossible. Raise $10m, hire 20 people is a common scenario for instance. Where are you going to find 20 people willing to put in and probably lose $500k for your idea? What if you need to raise $100m later on, where are you going to find that many people?

It's just not gonna happen.

There is absolutely nothing today preventing workers from operating the way you want them to.

If your system is so successful, why aren't most companies running like that?

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