this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb said in "The Black Swan" that he thought one of the unrecognized strengths of stock-market-based economies was that as publicly traded companies grow and get older, they tend to become bloated and incapable, and lose money and eventually die; and this represents a mechanism for redistributing wealth away from the investing classes ("the rich") with some of the money making its way back into society as a whole.
IDK if that's still true or ever was, but he was extremely successful working in finance; he wasn't just some idiot saying his opinions.
I'd laugh, but it hurts too much.
Doesn't work as well these days when everything is too big to fail and gets bailed out, instead of letting the economy endure the destruction part of creative destruction.
So glad we voted that one in! 😍 /S
This is kind of like saying in war, old weapons getting phased out reduces violence. While I am relieved I don't have to worry about musket ball injuries, the new weapons are more effective at what they are designed to do and the people driving the need for newer and more effective weapons have not fundamentally changed in their motivations.
The businesses themselves aren't driving the economy or how the megarich really make their money. Businesses are only the tools used by what's actually driving the economy which is Capital. The same Capitalists which drive businesses to behave ruthlessly in a marketplace, grow rapidly, and ultimately collapse under their own weight will simply reinvest in an entity which will competently bring in a return on investment. The only redistribution of wealth happening is Capital investment being diverted to other tools of Capitalism. Capitalists don't care which businesses or industry they're investing in, they only care about maximising the return on their investment and using their influence to ensure that happens as much as possible.
When I think of historical wealth distribution which has had major impact on the lives of regular people, I can't think of any which were caused by an outdated business clearing up some room in the market for newer and more lucrative capital investments to take its place. I have seen it through government action though.
The investment class realized it's way more profitable to cellar box a struggling company and that you can short sell the stock and never have to pay up when the company goes bankrupt. Free money!
Yeah, I think they're getting better at recapturing all the useful flesh any time that happens, now.