Enjoyed the article! I think one angle you may have missed is that for the past few decades the American economy has trended towards a rentier economy in many sectors, but specifically the businesses that VC funds. SaaS as an industry extracts rents, as does all of our endless subscriptions and cloud services. Rent extraction, as described long ago by Ricardo, is probably the main target to eviscerate when transitioning to industrial capitalism. In the early days of industrial capitalism rents weee minimized and the cost of doing business dramatically fell.
I'd push one thing further though — Gen Z gambling isn't just Prospect Theory. It's rational. When every promise you grew up on collapses, rolling the dice makes more sense than playing by rules that stopped working. That's not irresponsibility. That's adaptation.
And reindustrialisation is the right call but I think it's incomplete without a goal that's bigger than shareholder value. Otherwise you just rebuild the same loop.
The meaning gap underneath casino culture feels like the real story here.
Great article Dan. Spot on, Dan. Part of your article reminds me of Thiel’s 'You Are Not a Lottery Ticket'. Bill Gurley said something similar in the invest like the best podcast.
'late-stage' is now just a euphemism for a 'big check' ($300m into year-old startups). We aren't funding breakthroughs anymore...we’re just inflating the size of the casino's entry fee. The financialisation of VC has turned 'bespoke' building into a commodity game it seems.
A stat which surprised me (but didn’t seem to trouble anyone I mentioned it to) was that alongside much a higher % of capital being raised by big platform firms, those firms are also increasingly concentrated in what they invest in. Less diversity of ideas, geographies, founders, etc.
Enjoyed the article! I think one angle you may have missed is that for the past few decades the American economy has trended towards a rentier economy in many sectors, but specifically the businesses that VC funds. SaaS as an industry extracts rents, as does all of our endless subscriptions and cloud services. Rent extraction, as described long ago by Ricardo, is probably the main target to eviscerate when transitioning to industrial capitalism. In the early days of industrial capitalism rents weee minimized and the cost of doing business dramatically fell.
That's a great point, Ben. I'll cover it if there's a follow-up piece!
Great piece. The Perez framing is spot on.
I'd push one thing further though — Gen Z gambling isn't just Prospect Theory. It's rational. When every promise you grew up on collapses, rolling the dice makes more sense than playing by rules that stopped working. That's not irresponsibility. That's adaptation.
And reindustrialisation is the right call but I think it's incomplete without a goal that's bigger than shareholder value. Otherwise you just rebuild the same loop.
The meaning gap underneath casino culture feels like the real story here.
Yeah, a large chunk of the article is devoted to why risk-seeking behavior is the response to the limited opportunities in a financialised economy.
Reindustrialisation is about reorienting the economy towards productivity rather than accumulation.
Great article Dan. Spot on, Dan. Part of your article reminds me of Thiel’s 'You Are Not a Lottery Ticket'. Bill Gurley said something similar in the invest like the best podcast.
'late-stage' is now just a euphemism for a 'big check' ($300m into year-old startups). We aren't funding breakthroughs anymore...we’re just inflating the size of the casino's entry fee. The financialisation of VC has turned 'bespoke' building into a commodity game it seems.
A stat which surprised me (but didn’t seem to trouble anyone I mentioned it to) was that alongside much a higher % of capital being raised by big platform firms, those firms are also increasingly concentrated in what they invest in. Less diversity of ideas, geographies, founders, etc.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Braden.
soo interesting piece, thanks!!
🙏