Many people worry too much about things that don't hurt/help them. This pops up a lot in politics as well, with people arguing for/against things that would not change their life at all. I think it's just human nature to pick a side and adopt that side's strong opinions. People like to argue, and arguing for/against the interests of popular billion dollar multi-national companies is an exceedingly risk-free argument to engage in.
In the case of MoviePass, the only concern I'd have is if they closed shop suddenly after I've already paid for a month of service. But if they stayed open long enough, it doesn't matter. I might have lost $5 but I saved $50 over the course of my membership.
Why worry about crime when you’re not the victim? Because not constantly screwing each other over whenever possible is the fundamental basis for society. When somebody is pulling an obvious con, it’s reasonable to be concerned even when you’re not the target.
I worry about crime when it impacts the victims. I worry less about crime when there are no victims or when the victim does not feel the impact.
A person getting mugged on the street and then not being able to pay his rent is worth worrying about. A billionaire being scammed out of $100,000 is not. The users of MoviePass being scammed would be terrible. The VCs being scammed is the cost of doing business.
>I worry about crime when it impacts the victims. I worry less about crime when there are no victims or when the victim does not feel the impact.
MP has consistently lied to their customers about movie availability and made it extremely difficult/impossible to cancel subscriptions. They are also a publically traded company with no viable business model.
Unfortunately, it does concern you because public pension funds are investing in venture capital funds. If the pension funds lose money, you are going to be on the hook to make up the difference as a taxpayer.
In that case, everything impacts me and every argument I engage in should be a life or death argument.
In reality, it's not worth my time to argue if my taxes go up 25c per year or only go up 10c per year. Just writing this short comment has cost me more in dollars-per-hour than the difference in public pension fund taxes would.
Their are plenty of cities with massive unfunded pension liabilities that are causing services to be cut, less policemen hired, less firefighters, larger classroom sizes, and/or much higher property taxes.
And I'm sure there are more complex factors that go into that than MoviePass going out of business?
I'm not against arguing about things I can't control (check my comment history or just ask dang) but it's purely entertainment. If you or I want to affect change in that regard, MoviePass or even the VCs who fund it is the exact opposite of where that argument needs to start.
Interesting direction to take it, but I was thinking more like, HNers seem almost offended when someone's business model doesn't work how they think it should. If their runway isn't coming out of your bank account you really shouldn't care.
If you view VC investments as a zero sum game then you could be justified in being upset that someone is wasting money that could be financing your company instead. I haven't heard anyone make that argument, however.
In the case of MoviePass, the only concern I'd have is if they closed shop suddenly after I've already paid for a month of service. But if they stayed open long enough, it doesn't matter. I might have lost $5 but I saved $50 over the course of my membership.