>> I agree that is a problem with capitalism, specifically with fiat currency; but it can be corrected if we slowly move back to something akin to the gold standard. It's fixable.

Funny you say it's fixable when all my research over the last 10 years of the writings of BOTH conspiracy cranks AND people who have held positions at federal reserve banks indicate that (1) it's not fixable (2) it's going to break big-time, sooner than we expect and (3) the most important thing smart people should be doing right now is dropping everything and figuring out a new money system because the "old guard" can't come up with an answer and we're going to need one soon. For example, here's some "data" for you: I'm sure you're aware that Bush jacked up national debt to close to 10 trillion (from about 2 when he got here). But did you know state and municipal debt far exceeds that, and private debt exceeds even that?

Here's a sobering thought: when you compile the total debt in this country, private and public, and the amount of money needed to service that debt, and the cost of life (which will go up as we start experiencing inflation as the dollar is falling apart), SOME TIME between 2011 and 2013, it will be impossible to both continuously service that debt AND pay for the needs of life on an individual/corporate/government basis.

That means either banks get paid and we starve or there will be a civil war or something to suspend life as we know it.

What is your easy fixing solution to that (please don't say "gold" or "silver")?

Or perhaps you've looked at recent events over the last 8 years and have noticed ramp up in militarization, war for resources, and a huge spike in private prison construction and militarization of police forces in this country - almost like the establishment is getting ready for a big change.

Actually, we need fiat currency - we just need it distributed differently. Right now it's issued as debt-creation collateral, so debt always outpaces wealth creation on an exponential growth curve. Eventually you run out of possibilities of taking on new debt; for example, current value of "mega-derivatives" (institution-to-institution) is roughly now at about 11x total WORLD GDP. If you think the housing bubble is bad, wait until somebody figures out it's technically impossible for all derivative writers to give anywhere near the coverage they promise in case a worse-case scenario comes along.

Having said that, gold is useless because (1) it fails to account for population growth (2) it fails to account for real wealth creation and (3) the same people who control our fiat-based system currently control most of the existing gold supply in the world and have investments / buy options on most new discoveries of gold. So even if we switch ... what then? Do you think the "establishment" is going to help us setup a system to overthrow them by sharing the gold they own? Do you own gold? A lot? I don't and most people don't. And don't believe that B.S. about "gold call options" because most gold investment houses currently sell at about 10x ability to physically deliver, so unless you have it in your hand it counts for squat ...

>> I live in silicon valley.

Hence, you live in a fantasy la-la land where everything works in ways it doesn't anywhere else on the planet, so keep in mind your perception is warped and inapplicable elsewhere

>> I meet people all the time who have been rewarded for being clever (who come from lower class or middle class backgrounds). A lot of posts on YC have already disproven this point. You're ignoring a lot of data; not to mention you're just giving a lot of conjecture without hard facts.

Try that now as the reality sets in that most of the last 10 years (dot-com, expected oil bonanza in Iraq, housing bubble, etc.) was just one distraction after another to keep our minds off the fact that the underlying system is coming to the end of the track with no solution.

>> No offense, but I can list a lot of examples: Paul Graham, Jerry Yang, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, the list goes on and I'm not even including foreign business men. Your argument is really weak.

Sigh. I envy the gleam in your eyes. No offense to Paul Graham, but I'd like to see his effort duplicated now ... same with Yang. Doubt it would even be possible.

Bill Gates. Um ... Bill Gates is about as establishment as they come ... let's see ... his first customer was IBM, which fronted him money for a then non-existent product. But as everyone who know Phil Greenspan's writing knows, the CEO of IBM was friends with Bill's mommy. Gee ... wonder if that had anything to do with how a 21 year old got a face-to-face with the CEO of the biggest tech company of that time ...

Sam walton? Sam walton succeeded because of a one-time massive systematic non-repeatable even (globalization). You think anything that massive is just around the corner for you to exploit - any day now?

Not too familiar with China, so I'll pass comment, but it wreaks a lot of South Korea when it was being pegged as the "New Japan" and then it turned out to be a massive fraud.

>> Yes, that called traditional communism,

Wow. Read up on how standard oil got set up. Or even microsoft. If you think the "big business" aspect of capitalism is any different from what you imagine communism to be ... you need to read a lot more.

>> Again why do you think China switched

I don't know what you mean by "china switched" ... last time I checked China was a carefully micro-managed mixed economy, similar to Japan after WWII.

> History has already disproven your argument.

Really? How so? Last time I turned on my t.v. every presidential candidate was telling me that we're currently borrowing money from semi-communist china to finance oil from Sharia-law-based-commerce Saudi Arabia to go around playing make-pretend capitalism and the situation can't go on much longer.

If anything, recent analysis from many perspectives tell me that history has proven the exact opposite - that much of what we call the "capitalist success" story is a well-managed prop piece.

Tell me, have you ever travelled much across this country?

I have. Aside from a few pockets of development, most of this country is just one big poverty-inflicted, systematically busted wasteland.

If you live in the Valley and think that just because people there drive lots of Ferraris, that = America is one big happy successful place, you need to get some perspective.

Silicon Valley, like Hollywood, is amagical, artificial dream world that represents reality about as much as a commercial for a luxury resort.

> actually believe in what you're writing WHY are you trying to do a startup?

Because my startup is based on this reality and trying to find a solution to it, not trying to make a lot of money so I can afford to delude myself by surrounding myself with the trinkets of success that money can buy in this country.

I'm specifically trying to start a startup in preperation for a change in perception of reality, not because I want to have a quick IPO, cash in and move to Orange County ...