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> it's VC money, not people's savings.

Well, technically VC money is people's savings, usually parts of pension funds I believe.

A little of it is pension funds or sovereign wealth funds, but most of it is from high-net-worth individuals. Investors are required to be financially sophisticated; they know the risks they're taking.

The Dot Com bubble was VC-fueled too. Probably more so than this go-round, because it took more capital to start most kinds of companies back then.

If VCs lose all their money, it won't be anything new. Only a tiny fraction of VCs provide a return, after you take out the managers' fees. Large firms pump money into VCs almost charitably or as a PR thing -- they rarely expect much out of it, and their portfolios certainly aren't made or broken by their VC bets.