Peter Thiel's plan to pay students to quit college.

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.slate.com/id/2271265/?gt1=38001

Thiel fancies himself more than another self-indulgent tech billionaire. He has a big vision and has lately been spending some of the millions he has made on PayPal, Facebook, and a hedge fund called Clarium trying to advance it...."I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." The public, he says, doesn't support unregulated, winner-take-all capitalism and so he doesn't support the public making decisions. This anti-democratic proclamation comes with some curious historical analysis. Thiel says that the Roaring 20s were the last period when it was possible for supporters of freedom like him to be optimistic about politics. "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of 'capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron," he writes.
...
The Thiel Fellowship will pay would-be entrepreneurs under 20 $100,000 in cash to drop out of school. In announcing the program, Thiel made clear his contempt for American universities which, like governments, he believes, cost more than they're worth and hinder what really matters in life, namely starting tech companies.

Yes, we have here yet another libertarian who likes to believe his wealth is purely the product of his own labor, never mind that he stands on the shoulders of giants. There is a certain irony in his crusade against education, considering that the technologies that his entire career is built on were invented and developed by highly educated engineers, scientists, and programmers. little things like computers, networks, TCP/IP, the WWW, etc. Maybe if we're lucky enough of these types will run off and "seastead" in the middle of the friggin' ocean to create a utopia. LOL. How many times has utopia been attempted?

[midnight armadillo]

1. .

.

[quaker bill]

2. Robber-Barons, Ponzi schemes, and sweatshops

apparently seem like the golden age of capitalism to some. However, in a democracy with near universal enfranchisement, sooner or later the vast majority of expoited proles in such a system get a clue and vote for a different arrangement.

He sees a solution to this essential "problem" of libertarianism, and he is not incorrect. Unfortunately, the solution is for the greater mass of us to become disenfranchised unwashed hungry wage slaves prepared to do the bidding of the wealthy and powerful few for the crumbs they sweep off the table, and it would probably be even better if we considered it an honor and great fortune to do be of service to our masters.

It is actually not bad analysis. The problem is that instead of dropping the notion of libertarianism as a flawed system of thought in a modern world, he prefers to drop democracy as the one thing that makes his system of thought untenable, on the belief that "if we drop democracy and all notions of social justice, this stuff starts to work". He is intellectually on point, and morally depraved.

[TBF]

3. Just another libertarian - and a sexist one to boot. nt

[Kalyke]

8. I'm beginning to wonder if it's really sexism... or is it that

most capitalist pigs are men because women are more concerned with safety nets, given that, even in this day and age, most women are either care-giving for children and/or older parents and know what happens without those nets: that's why libertarianism is a hard sell on women.

So, in order to limit female participation, these libertarians side with conservative Republicans to limit our reductive choices, limit our earning abilities and harm many female-centric professions, such as teaching, nursing and waitressing - all of which still tend to be lower-paid professions (although, the shortage of nurses is helping that profession's bottom line).

[HughBeaumont]

4. Hey, you know what?

As big of a bag-a-douche as this asshole is, you have to at least give him credit for saying what none of those other corporate tools have the guts to say - that America, in the eyes of the wealthy, SHOULD be a plutocracy divided between winners and losers and SHOULD exist for the needs and wants of the rich and the rich ONLY.

Yes, Petey, and what happened after the Laissez-Fail, wealth-unequal "Roaring 20s"? Anyone? Anyone? Something starting with a "D"? You make bets with debt, don't be surprised if you lose your ass when it implodes.

[Kalyke]

5. And lets lay all the blame at the feet of women and the poor.

:eyes:

[Blue_Tires]

6. this assclown needs to find a new country

or just some island in the pacific where he can be alone with his stacks of money

[TBF]

9. My vote is to tax anyone making over $1M per year at 90%.

That ought to clear the doctors and other professionals who may've started out poor & need to pay off those student loans. That's got to be less than 1/2 of the top 1%, it would re-distribute alot of wealth, and we'd wipe out our deficit in a heartbeat.

He's an asshole.

[w4rma]

7. And who will protect his floatillas from piracy and invasions? (nt)