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Comment by watwut | Hacker News Reader

Many of those assets were useless - like railways from nowhere to nowhere. Only some ended up being used.

And many innocent people ended up being hurt in the process.

Bubbles are not good. They are harmful. The ability yo recoup some of the losses in the span of next 15 years does not make the bubbles something positive.

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  > Bubbles are not good. They are harmful.

bubbles are bad for society too; families get thrown out on the street, big players/individuals buy all the cheap/discounted assets furthering economy divisions, and depending on the size civil unrest etc....

Even railways from nowhere to nowhere often ended up being useful when the ends were extended to somewhere or when somewhere grew to encompass nowhere.

For example the Berlin Ringbahn was once some billionaire's toy but now it serves very useful traffic, as Berlin grew outwards to where the Ringbahn is.

It is not "often" it is "sometimes" and it is also less than a participation trophy. It does not make the bubble not harmful or even less harmful. It just means that sometimes you can repurpose an expensively build junk.

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