Bouncy house rentier capitalist not having a good time here. I guess if you’re gonna be a rentier you should do it at large enough scale to get bailed out rather than arrested.
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It’s a sad story... he clearly works far harder than most who live off rents, but it’s hard to conjure up much sympathy for a business that combines this level of non-essentialness with this level of risk. All his ideas rely on foot-traffic the way all mine rely on the internet
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He has 300 bouncy houses, and his fallback line of business was the balloon men stores use to attract attention. 13 employees all devoted to lugging the things around and setting them up. All booked out months in advance due to graduation party season it seems. All canceled.
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My small business is almost as non-essential, but is more conceptually diversified, and mostly relies on zero-capex infrastructure and more robust margins. Still, it worries me that I rely as much on 2 inputs — the existence of the internet and my own good health.
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He’s a Trumpie but in this case I wouldn’t hold that against him. Nobody can really prep for something like this. You’d spend all day tail-risk-proofing a business idea and never starting anything if you were to worry at this level. But still... something unsympathetic here.
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I think I just don’t like economic rents. Even if it’s something as simple as an inflatable house. But rather than trying to estimate “rentishness” of a business by the vague definition of economics, I prefer to apply my own definition
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A business is based on rents to the extent it does *not* require ongoing investment of thinking to keep it going. Ie if all you need is capital goods and formulaic labor that can be performed by interchangeable people, your business is based on rents.
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Replying to
Thiel hates competition. Always on the lookout for ways to achieve monopoly rents like Google & FB so they can ‘think’ without the burden of market pressure
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