The Problem With The Tech IPO Economy

The business strategy that will land Uber on the NYSE hinges on a key element: staggering sums of venture capital money. These investments let Uber and similar tech startups collect users by undercharging them. That’s great for well-off city-dwellers, who have benefitted from deep discounts on everything from pet-sitting to grocery shopping and laundry delivery to watermelon apportionment. But beyond contributing to the VC hipster-subsidy complex, the Uber IPO reflects a larger problem besetting the US economy. Silicon Valley-led entrepreneurship is supposed to be the engine of American innovation and future prosperity. Instead, the VC industry and the cash-burning startups it favors waste money and human capital—resources the rest of America needs to grow. Read more at Quartz.