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Comment by grej | Hacker News Reader

Seeing all of the “screw them, they are VC’s & tech bros, they took a risk they own it” sentiment on Twitter makes me sad. It’s a hard realization of how little clue so many people have about so much of the way the financial system works, and who would actually be impacted by these losses.

Also seeing finance bro hot takes like, oh those companies took the risk and should have done due diligence on the bank. SIVB was given an investment grade rating by both Moody’s and Standard and Poor. What due diligence are founders scrambling to find product market fit supposed to do in their spare time that is somehow beyond those organizations?

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>It’s a hard realization of how little clue so many people have about so much of the way the financial system works, and who would actually be impacted by these losses.

I think it's a little insulting to assume these people just don't understand the system. I think you have to nearly totally politically ignorant to not understand why people would feel this way. I don't know how you don't see the irony of complaining that ex-McKinsey founders shouldn't have to do due diligence on their bank, but that 18 year olds "know what they signed up for" and should have known that student loans were un-bankruptable. Many of the VCs who are now going hat in hand to Yellen are the same who opposed any sort of socialization. Why wouldn't that cause resentment?

The great financial crash and the socialization of losses that followed it have a lot to do with this populist attitude

I’ve noticed this tendency for at least a decade. People in general— even highly educated people in the media, government, and academia— are ignorant about economics and finance. There tends to be no nuance in much of the popular takes. I’m still quite ignorant, myself, but at least I can offer a bit more insight than: “capitalism: bad”.

I am curious, though, as to whether or not this general ignorance is new, or if it’s just that I’ve become more aware of it over the years.

Now people’s dumb opinions can be heard en masse. They can then even bubble up and get elected into congress. Before there was a muzzle by those who knew better who controlled the media and narrative. You can easily argue that gate kept all kinds of things that shouldn’t have been swept under the rug, but it turns out there’s a lot more dirt than coins under that rug.

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