Political Crossfire Forums

Meh. The thing that's truly amazing is how f**k clueless boomers are. Even dumb obvious ideas have yet to be capitalised on because all the people with capital are traditional boomers stuck in the past. They have utterly frozen institutions and government due to their inability to accept the needs and benefits of new technology.

Look at banking. A whole host of new apps do obvious and useful things that somehow huge banks like Bank of America can't manage to figure out. I can better manage my finances on mint than on any bank platform. I can move money cheaper and quicker with transfer wise than an actual bank. I use an app to open a bank account because it takes 4 days instead of the usual two weeks at a large bank. I can take a loan or make an investment with lending tree and get a better return for a better cause than sticking it in a savings account. All these basic tasks, budgeting, moving money, opening an account, getting loans, are now easier with new age apps than with huge financial institutions. Because the big banks haven't updated their computer systems for decades. They fax your documents and wire funds when all of that can easily be done electronically. Boomers are just too cheap dumb and set in their ways to change it.

The same can be said for most large industries. I get my cabs on uber and order my dry cleaning with washio and have my groceries delivered through an app. My metro card is on my phone, I buy almost everything through Amazon, and I even book my doctors appointments via an app. I don't think shit boomers realise there is no value for me in going to a physical place to get basic needs taken care of. I don't want to go to the grocery store or the dry cleaner or the bank, and to the extent a business can do away with that inconvenience I'm happy. It pisses me off that in a major city I cannot have something delivered to me same day with the touch of my phone, and I'm sure it's the same for half of people my age. I'm pretty annoyed that I even have to carry keys or a wallet, I should be able to do all of that shit from my phone. So many obvious business ideas out there that would rapidly move us to a bold and better future, but the ones with the money and power to do it sit on their hands facing each other documents and making analog phone calls like it's still the 1980s.

Everyone wants things from the touch of a button. However, if you want corn, you still have to dig a hole and put the seed in.

If you want to pee, you have to lift up the toilet seat and pee in there.

If you want a beer, you've gotta open up that fridge and reach in and grab it. Then use a bottle opener to open it. Or, in the case of a twist off, you gotta twist it off.

*Words of Wisdom*

The most valueable contribution millennials can make is legal weed.

Counterpoint is that often PE brings in experts and resources needed to better utilize existing assets. There is a difference between flipping companies and investing, and a lot of funds still do the latter.

Though there obvious negatives like the interests of the company and the controlling fund being in opposition (e.g., entering a huge term loan and kicking the proceeds to the investor but just using the assets of the portfolio company to secure the loan). But we shouldn't throw the useful parts out along with the bad. Just needs tighter regulation IMO.

Please don't couch this as a "millennial" thing. Every generation has had their innovators, start-ups, etc. And, every generation has had to fight against some "overwhelming force" to make it work.

Remember standard oil? Ma Bell? ALCOA? Government was actually used to break up those behemoths and make smaller, more agile, companies.

What about possibly the single largest and most significant technological and cultural breakthrough in US history? Yeah, boomers sent men to the moon. Musk can't even land a rocket on earth 4-out-of-5 times.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for branching out and starting new things. In fact, I've identified a niche in property taxes that is currently both enormous (the problem) and unsaturated with people who can fix it. I'm taking a division of my company and developing it. So far, so good.

Also, the government DOES overreach a lot of times. Yet, we ask them to do this every time we hear of some kid whose car seat failed because it wasn't manufactured properly. Or, we ask the government to step in when a start-up company tries to use a new way of extracting gas, yet might end up poisoning ground water supplies.

My point? It's not a generational thing.