If you're naked, cold & alone an IPO won't help.

[Tasermaxx]

It's gonna be awfully hard to maintain a state of the art social network in a society that will be violently torn apart by economic inequality. Good luck updating your status when the next revolutionary war destroys your entire existence.

[Di0genesus]

Tech companies don't last long when they go public and are thus subservient to a bunch of old, fat luddites.

[DeJach]

@Di0genesus IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Linkedin, Pandora, Raytheon, iRobot, VistaPrint, EMC, eBay, PayPal, Intel, ARM, Texas Instruments, AMD.... Yeah, I think I can write you off as completely uninformed.

[henleythecat]

Thom,

I had read somewhere that the reason that China is moving to a national health care system is that families, not knowing who and when someone would get sick or how much the medical care will cost, are forced to hoard cash.

The result of that idle cash, is that they are not purchasing what their own country is creating, leaving the countries economy tied to the economy of the US & Europe.

Now we are hording cash believing the GOP is going to dismantle SS and Medicare.

[DeJach]

Thom, you can't say "go out and take a risk" when you're not going out to take a risk. People who start startup companies are taking risks, a lot of them, that's why when they're successful they tend to be massively successful. If you eliminate a lot of the risks, that huge success goes away as well and the economy stagnates. Safety nets are useful, I agree, I'm very intrigued by the idea of guaranteed minimum income of $15k or so. But life is risky and making it risk-free doesn't yet work.

[DeJach]

Facebook is different, this is why. It's made of engineers. Engineer millionaires leave and create startups which create new value in the economy and also means more people are hired. (Granted, not many out-of-work manual labor jobs. Sucks for you if you didn't become an engineer.) It also means more money for the grubby government to take and distribute.

[Di0genesus]

@DeJach

Computer engineers don't have shit if the grid is down, and can't adapt into a manual society like old school engineers (what computer techs refuse to call engineers anymore...because it's sooooo blue collar). So, as the infrastructure crumbles in the US, the facebook folks are going to have to leave the country if they want to keep using their so-called education.

[DeJach]

@Di0genesus Your original premise is wrong; all the CEs I know are aware of how to generate their own power if needed. Since your premise is wrong I won't address the rest of your comment.

[oolong2]

@DeJach

I think you misinterpreted what the previous person said Generating local power is only failsafe for local power issues.

Facebook wouldn't be anything without everyone's global participation. Not only does that entail millions of people participating in Facebook for social interaction, but power grids, satellites, networks, computer, phone, & software companies.

FB is a great piece of software, but much of it's success is about being in the right place and right time.

[DeJach]

@oolong2 Almost isomorphically, I also know or know of a lot of engineers who are willing to set up a new wireless mesh network and a new power grid if the existing infrastructure goes kaput for some reason. Both your comment and the previous person's are completely different. Yes, Facebook itself does rely on millions of people having access to the internet. The individual engineers who built Facebook do not, they can (and many will) go on to do other things.

[Di0genesus]

@DeJach

The term engineer is overused and has become a "yuppie" word. Like I said, white collar techies are SOL, even if they can temporarily mesh local scale grid systems together. They cannot, and are not willing to build anything from the ground up. I've worked for enough of them to know what they think they can do versus what they CAN do. Even Facebook is nothing new, just a consolidation of existing apps and scripts combined with over-hype.

[journeyer58]

Thom, is this the same safety net that is now making me, a disabled person choose between differing life sustaining meds? Because I only get SSI, and I'm not eligible for Social Security I am at the mercy of a state bureaucracy that is limiting the amount of prescriptions to 6 per person per month. Never mind if these meds are life saving or sustaining, they don't care as long as the people who administer the programs get their health care completely paid for without cost to them.

[journeyer58]

What would they do in my shoes? I cannot work, but have to have meds that sustain my life and still I am told that I have a 6 med limit per month. Isn't a class action suit because of disability called for? Can we not sue in Federal Court about limits to meds like this, if those who are choosing get their's for free on the taxpayer's dollar while I am limited? There has to be a way to help disabled people without sacrificing their lives?

[PortlandsTransport]

Excellent Tom! Right on the nose...

[danielvincentkelley]

Yeah, sure, material, well used, can lead to good health and happiness. It's worth mentioning though that what you do to get that material will surely impact your ultimate ability to enjoy it. Nearly nobody who becomes a millionaire gets their material wealth strictly by ethical means. Then, having that much money imposes responsibility as hording while babies starve to death is murder. Which is another thing that will surely lead to devastating misery while obscenely rich.

[znuff2able]

content-

[optionsupdate]

Greenspan highlighted the economic benefits of people living on the edge of homelessness and poverty

[Licmycat]

We're guilty of gluttony? I KNOW their wicked rich are gluttons. Rather like cutting off ur nose to spite ur own face in their case. Our gov. was supposed to stand for us all but when they are for the evil rich they have made a life choice that can be deadly. After all, when they can no longer divide us which is what they hate about Unions, then we can unite and eat the rich men when the snow gets deep. At least most are big and fat and will have some lardy pieces to use for frying...

[optionsupdate]

Mr Hartmann how come the media and you are silent on the Wisconsin recall, its a blow to the 1%

[VoVaKissCam]

Our safety net doesn't operate like that, they want you to lose everything....be homeless, collect welfare, go insane.....then you can get that safety net....only after everything you worked for is gone.....the best part of this system....the vultures in the town come to take your stuff.....they continue to check and see if I have any cash hidden....nope all gone....most of all my stuff all gone....you guys got it all including my sanity....and I am still waiting for this net to catch me