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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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The whole "took a risk" stuff is so dumb because in most cases what they risk is ending up with less money.. which is still more than most people have throughout their lifetime.
I'd feel totally safe risking 900 million USD if I already had 1 billion USD. What's the worst that can happen, like, really?
To add on to that, what gives people a special right to be able to take "risks" like that in the first place? It's not like the basis for risk taking is distributed in a way that most people can, so they're taking advantage of most people not even being able to as well as it being little real risk.
Just another way the game is rigged. If I spent every cent I had to create a risky startup, I'd be homeless. If someone from an affluent family spends every cent they have, they'd always be able to borrow life changing money (even 5k could change someone's life) or move in to someone's summer home, etc.
Yeah it's false to equate risk to investment.
Risking 50 dollars is very different to a wage slave than to someone in the middle class.
You have to look at the situation they're risking putting themselves into, not the number of dollars or hours of labor they're risking.
It's like when conservatives say they're in favour of equality of opportunity (but not in favour equality of outcome, a total red herring but that's a different rant). Like when has there ever been equality of opportunity?
The risk actually complete and utter bullshit anyway, especially if you're operating under a corporation.
Consider I take out $1m to start business. I buy a property and equipment for the business. I operate it for a year, make some money, then go bankrupt.
The bank takes back the business assets and ... That's it. They can't touch your personal assets unless you agreed to put them up as collateral. If it was a sole proprietorship your credit score goes to zero which sucks for a few years, but if it's a corporation the company goes bankrupt and you walk away scot free.
So I spent a year running a business, made some money, and wind up in the same place I started. What did I lose? Maybe a credit score and that's it.
If there is nothing to lose, then there is no risk.