You are ignoring the point the hypothetical is attempting to illustrate in order to quibble with practical details of the stories I tell in the post. My point is that new businesses (even productive ones, with few negative externalities) typically make money through siphoning the value of other businesses and also creating value. In some cases the ratio is highly positive (i.e. the companies I list), in most cases it is not.
If you need a more “realistic” example of a business that is almost entirely and clearly predicated on redirecting money from other businesses, see the high frequency trading industry.
You are the one that made the strong claim “Most successful entrepreneurship is unproductive”. Are you saying that claim doesn’t need to hold up in the practical details? If so, maybe the post should be titled, “Successful Entrepreneurship Can Be Unproductive”.
If the hypotheticals in the post are all potentially not actually cases where successful entrepreneurship was unproductive for society, I am highly skeptical of the claim.
I understand illustrative hypotheticals, but to call most entrepreneurship unproductive by disregarding one the most important functions of entrepreneurship (price discovery) is silly; try having a productive society without efficient prices. The price discovery requires the “creative destruction” of businesses that, at a first glance, appears to be unproductive to happen.
Maybe I am just not understanding a nuance in your post.
You are ignoring the point the hypothetical is attempting to illustrate in order to quibble with practical details of the stories I tell in the post. My point is that new businesses (even productive ones, with few negative externalities) typically make money through siphoning the value of other businesses and also creating value. In some cases the ratio is highly positive (i.e. the companies I list), in most cases it is not.
If you need a more “realistic” example of a business that is almost entirely and clearly predicated on redirecting money from other businesses, see the high frequency trading industry.
You are the one that made the strong claim “Most successful entrepreneurship is unproductive”. Are you saying that claim doesn’t need to hold up in the practical details? If so, maybe the post should be titled, “Successful Entrepreneurship Can Be Unproductive”.
If the hypotheticals in the post are all potentially not actually cases where successful entrepreneurship was unproductive for society, I am highly skeptical of the claim.
I understand illustrative hypotheticals, but to call most entrepreneurship unproductive by disregarding one the most important functions of entrepreneurship (price discovery) is silly; try having a productive society without efficient prices. The price discovery requires the “creative destruction” of businesses that, at a first glance, appears to be unproductive to happen.
Maybe I am just not understanding a nuance in your post.