The Biggest Risk Facing Businesses When It Comes To Disruption Is To Do Nothing At All: Fill & Download for Free

As much as China wants to, it cannot.I am reading other answers by my Chinese brothers who are saying how they are not bothered by it. That is a plain denial and ignorance, perhaps because there is nothing China can do against it.After having lived in China for eight years I know for a fact that one thing which Chinese cannot take loss of is “Money”.Chinese love money like no one else. Their govt rather risk the lives of people by allowing tourism, business, etc in the mid of a pandemic than lose money.With the banning of these apps, India has hit China where it hurts the most.Estimated figures suggest that this will cause some 6 billion US dollar loss to Chinese per year and that is just from ByteDance, the company behind TikTok.ByteDance loss may hit $6b after India bans Chinese appsAnd the reason China can not do much about it as if anything it does will hurt it back.For long China has been praised for the manufacturing hub of the world, this is the time when that glory will bite back. If you are a seller and if you stop selling your goods to your customers, it is you who will be at the higher end of the loss. The customer will probably purchase the same thing from somewhere else may be at a higher price, but all your investment in setting up your manufacturing will immediately start incurring loss again hitting you where it hurts you the most.China already knows it does not have a good reputation in the world and the only reason other countries buy from it as they offer cheaper deals than other countries. This is their only leverage and their entire economy runs on it. Taking that away to try to punish other countries will exponentially hurt them back.Edit 1 —Lot of people are commenting that India produces next to nothing for China so India cannot put any sanctions on China. I think they totally missed the point. The fact that India is a consumer is what is its real power here. China cannot do anything to make India buy more but India certainly can chose to go in the opposite direction hurting Chinese business further which has already started.Anti China emotions are at all time high in India and all the trade relationship with China is hanging on few threads at the moment. Any more f*** up by China will make it far far worse for them. As we know and they know, Indians are emotional by nature and they are not happy by killing of their 20 soldiers by China.Like, I said, within China the business disruption is something they can not take, especially at this time, when entire world is having serious thoughts about their dependency on China. I am not sure how many of you know but there are news about a new diseases spreading in China, but China is not going to go in any more lock down for now as its business environment just cannot take it. Their own gold reserves are going down and it has been reported that some of it might be fake gold.China's biggest gold fraud, 4% of its reserves may be fake: Report.Internally China might be bleeding but since the news from China is all filtered we do not see that.Edit 2 —Some people are questioning my statement made about Chinese loving money saying that everyone loves money. No, you don’t. DUTCH, Gujarati, Baniyas, Americans, we all love money, but we are not even close to how much Chinese do. Being invited for a party at someone’s house and then asked for money for the food I ate is something I have witnessed only in China. Then a party was thrown at my house and since I do not know how to cook Chinese food, I was suggested that each guest will bring some food and they all will cook it in my kitchen while I will arrange for the drinks, and then again I had to pay (like others) for the food which they bought, but I never asked money for the drinks I served as this is just not done where I come from, to which everyone was fine. These are just few examples and should give you some idea.Edit 3 —Some are saying just by banning a stupid video app what India is trying to prove.For you TikTok is just an app for making stupid videos, it is much much more than that for China. China which keeps its own user data hidden, TikTok is a medium for collecting the data of other countries’ citizen. This data is further extrapolated to assess the trend, future demands, user’s locations, etc. This data is worth hundreds of billions and is in demand by companies/political parties/agencies all over the world. So do not think that we are just talking about a 6 billion dollar loss here, it is a big leverage which is just taken away from China.What’s going on with TikTok, China, and the US government?https://www.cnet.com/news/tiktok-accused-of-secretly-gathering-user-data-and-sending-it-to-china/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/should-we-trust-chinese-owned-tiktok-personal-data/11962086Edit 4 —Lots of people are advising me to disable the comment in the post as they are seeing I am being attacked by Chinese readers. I thank them for their caring attitude.I personally find the ‘disable comment’ feature as an absolute rubbish and authoritarian. It is like “I forced my opinion on you but you are not allowed to react”. I detest those writers who use that feature. If you have written something you better have balls to see the reaction otherwise stop writing on the internet and go back to your personal diary. Every person has the right to his/her views and you can’t simply stop someone from expressing views by not letting comment.I welcome all negative and positive comments.Edit 5 —So recently some more apps are banned, including the famous PUBG mobile. This is another big smack, probably the biggest, on the face against which again China can do nothing about. For those who do not know, PUBG has two version, one which is only released in China and showcase players as national heroes fighting for their county.Then there is the version release for the rest of the world where it is just meaningless shooting on each other.In the china version, when a player is killed there is no blood depicted and all the dying players does is raise his hand showing that you got me and I admire your feeling for your nation. It also resembles goodbye in good faith and to not have any negative feelings about each other. Dead bodies are also not visible in PUBG China version.China’s PUBG replacement makes people wave goodbye after they dieIn the non-China version you see all sorts of craziness all the time.The China version is not release outside China, and the non-China version is banned with in China. The idea behind is to promote nationalistic feelings among Chinese nationals and instill hatred and chaos in outside young generations. Something like this should have banned a long time ago and I am glad it eventually happened.

The bitcoin price has started trading flat for this year and this is due to the financial and economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. For the month of March this year, bitcoin price has dropped to $4,000. Luckily, it is climbing once again to $7,000 starting last April. People own cryptocurrencies for several reasons. Some individuals opt to store these cryptocurrencies as value because of the limited supply of Bitcoin. Others choose to store it as they wait for its value to become higher than the U.S. dollar so they could earn more profit. There are also those who buy Bitcoins just because they use it in their daily transactions as they travel around the world or shop for groceries. Lightning Wallets such as Lastbit even make it possible to pay in stores that don’t accept bitcoin.Although Bitcoin is still not recognized as a legal tender across Australia, it is not deemed illegal to use it for financial transactions. Proof of this is the fact that the Australian Taxation Office announced in 2018 that it will be imposing taxes on Bitcoins, as a property that will be under the rules of the CGT or Capital Gains Tax. Thus, more and more Australians are also investing on Bitcoins these days. Today, many people are using Swyftx to trade BTC in Australia. However, the best time to buy Bitcoin still remains in the dark for some Bitcoin traders, especially for those who are still new in this industry. According to studies conducted by bitcoin experts, the best time for purchasing bitcoins couldn’t be etched on rock since the cryptocurrency industry is highly volatile. However, some findings from studies and observations made by cryptocurrency analysts reveal the following:The Price of Bitcoin Tends to Decrease on MondaysDuring weekends, the demand for Bitcoin will tend to slow down. In turn, its price is also more likely to go down when Monday comes. However, Bitcoin price will also soar high again during Fridays and Saturdays.Some People Prefer to Buy on a WeekendSome findings from studies made also reveal that many people decide to buy Bitcoin during the weekends and make transactions from the start of the week. In turn, volumes increase on the first day of the week, but people should be more cautious in their behavior by the rest of the week.Avoid Buying During Pay DaysThose who have been in the Bitcoin trading industry know that they should avoid purchasing bitcoins during the time when employees earning salaries are being paid. This usually occurs in the middle or by the end of the month. The reason for this is obvious. When people have more money to buy Bitcoins, the demand for this cryptocurrency increases along with its price.Use a TDM Analysis Software to Figure Out the Best TimeIf you’re looking to buy Bitcoin but are not certain when is the best day of the week to do it, it is best to use a software or get advice from a bitcoin broker who helps you make sound analysis. With this software, it will become easier for you to find out whether it is best to purchase Bitcoins at the start of the week, when there is an uptrend or if it is best to sell towards the end of the week when a downturn occurs so you are more likely to get the best price.One of the best things about the cryptocurrency world is its promise for a more transparent way of banking, which is something that people could not expect from the current mainstream banking. Cryptocurrency promises immutability and decentralization which helps ensure that everyone involved in the network has a clear idea of what is currently happening within the system.The Best Time To Buy BitcoinLet’s face it. Not many people in the cryptocurrency industry have solid financial knowledge. Most cryptocurrency holders are self-taught while others rely on knowledge borrowed from the traditional financial sector. There is nothing wrong with that as long as the shoe fits.Economists have weighed in on the best time to buy bitcoin, giving their observations based on several factors and analysis.Academics from the prestigious Yale University developed a technique on past price action to predict the price of bitcoin. The economists – Yukun Liu and Aleh Tsyvinski – analyzed bitcoin’s price for the past seven years and developed a model that predicts BTC’s price.The research showed cryptocurrencies widely differ from traditional assets when it comes to the factors that determine price swings.Economists proved that Bitcoin, unlike stocks and commodities, heavily relies on momentum. In other words, this means that if Bitcoin is performing well, it will likely continue to do so in the short-term. According to this study, investors should purchase the leading digital currency if its value appreciates by more than 20 percent in a week.Time of the day to buy BTCOkay. Now that we have a better understanding of which days to avoid when buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the next issue to resolve would be the specific timeframe.Should you buy bitcoin in the morning, afternoon, or evening? As previously mentioned, Bitcoin isn’t tied to rigid schedules such as stocks and even fiat currencies.Both the stock and forex markets tend to react to expected announcements at certain times of the day. With cryptocurrencies, it all gets a bit blurred since they don’t follow the same behavior or respond to the same kind of announcements.No long faces. There are still ways to predict the right time to buy Bitcoin. As a general rule, BTC price increases in value at a very rapid pace and then steadily decline as it enters a period of stability.Global instabilityGeopolitics play a significant role in every single market. For example, the uncertainty of Brexit has weakened the British Pound considerably in just a matter of months.Political instability and chaos can quickly increase the price of Bitcoin. The leading digital asset is regarded as “digital gold,” a safe-haven asset that acts just like precious metals.The US-China trade war exemplifies this case with ultimate precision. The rising tension between these super nations has pushed the Yuan to retreat and strengthened Bitcoin’s position.Buying the dipBuying cheap, selling dear isn’t a new concept. As the oil tycoon Paul Getty once said: “Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying.”When the price nosedives, it is regarded as the best time to buy. The question is, when do you know if the price has reached its bottom? You may never know, but if it is continuously falling, it could be best to buy it in chunks.This is called averaging down. You can buy a certain amount of Bitcoin this week and keep some of your money to buy the following week. If the price falls again, you’ll benefit as your average price will be lower. It will work in your favor when you finally decide to cash out your holdings.The bottom lineIt is difficult to predict the best time to buy bitcoin. Bitcoin is experimental, and therefore, volatility is expected to remain in place. The same applies to other cryptocurrencies.No one can tell you what will happen in the next week, month, or year. Yet, some of the tips outlined in this article may come handy when trying to define the right moment to enter the market.Top 10 Best Cryptocurrencies To Invest In 2020Are you planning on investing in cryptocurrencies this year? With more than 5000 cryptocurrencies out there, choosing which is the best cryptocurrencies to invest in is no easy task. But no worries, we’ve put together a list of the top cryptocurrencies to invest in 2020. Before we take a closer look at the best cryptocurrenciesWhy Should You Invest In Cryptocurrencies?Many people will argue that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance. While that future might be years away, it’s certainly not a crazy statement to make. Digital currencies offer multiple advantages compared to traditional fiat money, such as lower fees, transparency and transaction speed.When looking at cryptocurrencies from an investor’s perspective and wonder “why should I invest in cryptocurrencies?”, there are mainly 5 reasons to consider:Amount: fractional investment reduces the minimum investment barriers so that nearly everyone out there can purchase cryptocurrencies.Liquidity: cryptocurrency exchanges are open 24/7 so that you trade, buy and cash out your assets anytime.Transparency: the blockchain records all transactions, available to everyone around the world. This provides an ultimate level of transparency for investors.Diversification: the large number of cryptocurrencies out there enables you to easily diversify your portfolio in order to mitigate risks.Fees: digital currencies offer lower fees compared to traditional investments assets.Which Cryptocurrency To Invest In?Now that you understand the benefits of investing in cryptocurrencies, check out the list of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in 2020. This list is based on the potential of these cryptocurrencies to show sustainable growth in the months ahead.Disclaimer: the following list does not include Crypterium’s token CRPT. While the price of CRPT has increased nearly 70% in 2019, legal reasons prevent us from advertising its purchase.Bitcoin (BTC)The list of best cryptocurrencies to invest in cannot start with a different cryptocurrency than Bitcoin — the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. In fact, the popularity of this digital currency is one of its biggest advantages against other players in the market.As long as Bitcoin continues to dominate the cryptocurrency market, investors will always benefit from high liquidity levels. Even during periods of market uncertainty. Over the years, Bitcoin has shown a volatile yet consistent growth.With the Bitcoin Halving 2020 around the corner, the community expects Bitcoin to soon approach new historical peaks.Ripple (XRP) – Best Affordable Cryptocurrency To Invest InThird cryptocurrency by market capitalization but second in our ranking, Ripple (XRP) is among the most promising investments in this list. It’s solid technology and network are rapidly opening new opportunities in the field of international commerce, banking and payment networks.Remittance giant MoneyGram has received over $11 million from Ripple in 2019 to use its blockchain technology for payment solutions. “MoneyGram continued to expand its strategic partnership with Ripple as the first money transfer company to scale the use of blockchain capabilities,” the company wrote in a press release.MoneyGram heavily relies on Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity, a product that runs on XRP. Institutional interest is a key factor behind the bullish XRP 2020 forecast.In February 2020, European money transfer service Azimo announced it will also start using Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity to increase the speed of customer transfers.The list of companies using Ripple services goes on and on. Experts believe 2020 will result in a higher adoption of XRP and therefore its price will increase significantly.Litecoin (LTC)Litecoin is another cryptocurrency that you shouldn’t ignore in 2020. LTC is one of the fastest and most affordable cryptocurrencies when it comes to payments. Its technology-forward profile has put this cryptocurrency on the third place by market capitalization.Compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the only currencies above Litecoin, this cryptocurrency offers huge potential at much more affordable price level. Each LTC unit currently trades for less than $100, which gives a wider number of investors the opportunity to jump in.In a similar way than Ripple, the price of Litecoin also largely depends on adoption. Hopefully for its supporters, the coin seems to be already on a good path. Litecoin has recently confirmed it will be integrated to regular ATMs in South Korea through a partnership with MeconCash.Ethereum (ETH)Ethereum needs no introduction. Bitcoin might be the most popular cryptocurrency, but no one can deny Ethereum is by far the most influential one. The reason is simple: the Ethereum blockchain enables thousands of projects to develop on top of it.Standing a little over $200, Ethereum remains a very accessible investment for those starting off in the cryptocurrency space. The strength of this currency is closely related to the strength of its network. The more decentralized applications and ecosystems relying on the Ethereum network, the more powerful ETH tokens will become. While it’s unlikely that Ethereum matches Bitcoin’s price, analysts still see huge potential for this cryptocurrency in the months ahead.Neo (NEO)The cryptocurrency world remains a pretty small one. There are only a few names that truly ring a bell, and Da Hongei is certainly among them. He is the mind behind NEO — an open-source, community driven platform that leverages blockchain technology to optimize the digital economy.The Genesis Block resulted in 100 million NEO tokens. Investors received half of the tokens, and the rest remains locked into a smart contract. Every year, a total of 15 million tokens are released to fund long-term goals of the NEO development team.Since January 2019, the NEO Token has nearly doubled from a $7.50 to the current $11.00. While this remains a rather risky investment, it’s low price makes it easy to accommodate on any portfolio. The market cap of this “Chinese Ethereum” is about $790 million.Zcash (ZEC) – Best Privacy Coin To Invest InDo you think Bitcoin offers you privacy? Think twice. Most cryptocurrencies out there can be tracked down to their owners by governments and companies. So… is the privacy dream over? Not exactly. Zcash is the shelter for those holders looking for outstanding privacy.Just like Bitcoin, Zcash has a total fixed supply of 21 million ZEC coins. Aside from its privacy capabilities, ZEC doesn’t differ much from other cryptocurrency assets like Bitcoin or Litecoin. Zcash was designed mainly for peer-to-peer value transfers.The price of Zcash is closely tied to the overall market performance. In 2019, this privacy coin reached a peak value of $112, a dynamic aligned with Bitcoin’s mid-year rally. That said, if Bitcoin continues to develop positively, it’s likely Zcash will follow.Stellar (XLM)Stellar is one of the popular projects out there. And it’s been around since 2014, meaning its development is ongoing and it only keeps getting stronger. With a price that’s counted on cents, it’s also among the most affordable cryptocurrencies to invest in.Stellar — an open source, decentralized protocol for cross-border transactions — launched with a network consisting of 100 billion stellar tokens. Tokens are now called Lumens or XLM tokens.The ultimate goal of Stellar is to replace the SWIFT system, disrupting the global money market. Through XLM tokens, the Stellar network enables cross-border transactions between any currency pair. One distinctive characteristic of Stellar is that it serves as a backbone for other cryptocurrencies. This gives Stellar a huge opportunity to further develop itself and scalate.Cardano (ADA)Cardano is one of the newest kids on the blockchain. Launched in 2015, this technological platform aims at becoming the home for large scale financial applications. The decentralized ecosystem runs on ADA — its own cryptocurrency.As most cryptocurrencies, ADA is designed to be a fast and reliable vehicle for value transfers. The Cardano network is built on layers, which offers a high degree of flexibility when it comes to updates. Since Cardano also allows the development of dApps, the cryptocurrency community expects multiple services to develop around it and therefore push ADA higher.Cardano relies on a strong community of tech-forward people. The company has even partnered up with the University of Malta to offer multiple courses on the programming languages used within the Cardano network.Tron (TRX)First off, if you’re expecting neon lights and futuristic motorcycles, then you’re reading about the wrong TRON. Founded in 2017 by the so-called TRON Foundation, this ecosystem has quickly turned into one of the most hype projects in the crypto world. Justin Sun is the CEO of Ontology and he’s been listed as one of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 in 2017.The goal of TRON is to build a free, global digital entertainment system that enables users to share digital content in an easy and cost-effective way. Too complicated? Think about Netflix for a moment. This third party concentrates content and distributes it on demand to its large audience. For content creators, hosting content on Netflix comes at a big cost.With TRON, the idea is to cut the middleman and allow anyone and everyone to host digital content on its blockchain-based ecosystem.For content creators, this model gives them a unique chance to lower the price of third party distribution channels. For the public, the lower fees on the creator’s side might translate into lower prices to access content. TRX is the cryptocurrency of this ecosystem.Ontology (ONT)Ontology is a public multi-chain platform. Its goal is to boost adoption of blockchain technology among the business community. Ontology allows businesses to implement blockchain solutions without having any prior knowledge on the matter.Through the multiple tools developed by Ontology, businesses of all sizes can launch trust mechanisms and tailor them to their needs.The Ontology blockchain protocol significantly reduces the learning curve for blockchain business applications, especially when it comes to identity verification and data exchange. The network runs on the ONT token, which has a max supply of 1 billion tokens.Poeple do not know that there are other ways one can earn more bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.For example,investing your coin on a platform like cryptomax(www.cryptomax.tech)where your invested coin will be doubled in 7 days.Try it and thank me latter.

This is an excellent suggestion and could be employed to right so many of the wrongs that progressives see!For example, many progressives believe that greedy capitalists exploit their workers. Lazy, fat capitalist pigs fill their own pockets with unfairly stolen portions of the workers’ labor contribution to the profits, while the capitalists smoke cigars and laugh about the latest worker amputation due to the poor working conditions.Progressives are certain that workers — running the factory themselves — would produce better products, more cooperatively, more humanely, and more aligned with the planet. A factory — fully started, funded, owned, and staffed by the workers — could return 100% of the benefit of the workers’ labors to the workers, and its superior products should put out of business sweat-shop factories owned by capitalist pigs.Think of the advertising angle: AOC’s beaming face appealing for all Workers Unite! to buy only products from progressive worker factories (while absolutely refusing to buy any products of corporatist tools!)So, if you really believed that greedy businessmen were “exploiting” workers — or customers, or suppliers, or women, or minorities, or trans, or “the planet”, or … — this solution should be available to you and to your peeps in a freed market.So, why has the left not righted the wrongs they see by directly helping the victims of corporate greed, by creating better companies that supplant evil companies!?Let’s look at some possible reasons, and think for a bit about their implications might be — not just for the left and for their favorite victim classes, but for all of us:1) We Do Not Have a Freed MarketThe first possibility we have to entertain — and frankly it is one with which I, who have worked on a score of disruptive startups, and consulted to scores of small businesses trying to make it, strongly agree — is that we do not enjoy a freed market. In industry after industry, government has placed artificial obstacles through their laws and regulations that prevent free and easy entry of new competitors. Our progressives’ company is legally prohibited (i.e., backed by violent threats from the state) from easily challenging fat, happy, lazy, rent-seeking, established, corporate cronies.Now, I know what you’re thinking:“But, Dennis! All those obstacles were put in place by those very same progressives! It was their misguided attempts to undermine “the power of big corporations” which caused them to put in so many regulations, which instead strangled small and upstart companies, while protecting the big corporations.Thus, their inability to enter these markets is their just desserts!”Well, my first response is: No, progressives are certainly not responsible for all the regulations and laws that give unfair advantages to the existing big corporations. Yes, ironically, progressives continually place obstacles in the free market thinking that they are “fighting the big corporation”, when all they are doing is giving additional obstacles for the big corporations to prevent competition from little guys or new guys.But, to be fair, many of these unfair advantages were put in by <ahem> “conservative” administrations.You see, politics is primarily this big battle over who gets to give to their friends and their supporters quadrillions of dollars of politically plundered loot from the poor citizens. And much plunder can be reaped by erecting trade barriers for friends and supporters.And whether Democratic or Republican, Socialist or Fascist, Whig or Federalist, the politicians who win elections are the ones who promise the most loot — and the most artificial obstacles — to the most powerful and able-to-pay cronies. And this is why we libertarians often roll our eyes when Republican politicians promise “less regulation” and “greater economic freedom”, even as their campaign coffers fill with crony contributions. We know what they are planning to do to us should they win to pay back their corporatist supporters.But my second response is that you should stop your chortling at the sweet irony of the barriers that were erected by progressives stopping progressives from creating new worker-companies!! Instead, you should be bending over backwards to allow them to compete!Because let’s say that they are right: that there really are big corporations that are earning government-enforced monopoly profits by exploiting customers, workers, suppliers, neighbors, taxpayers, pizza delivery boys, people with artificial genitalia, and guppies in small streams. Are you willing to cut off your nose to spite your face? Those artificial monopoly profits are coming out of your pocket, too. No one — not even a progressive — can stop a corporation’s exploitation when it is protected by the government. You should be helping them remove the government, and your politicians are doing just the opposite.We libertarians would love for them to prove their point by offering better products at lower prices!! How could you object to better products and lower prices?And if the government prevents them from proving their point, by throwing up obstacles that prevent them from competing with their corporatist cronies, you know what those progressives are going to do instead, don’t you!? They’re going to demand even more government control of the marketplace, which, you and I know, but which they seem to be immune to ever learning, will only play into the corporatists’ hands and increase this supposed exploitation and allow cronies to plunder us even more!Instead of being pleased that progressives have painted themselves into a corner where they can’t use a freed market to fix what might be a real problem, you should be out there castigating your Republican “representatives” to stop their own plundering and their own cronyism, and to instead do what they have been promising forever but never delivering — to open up the market! So that even progressives could actually use the mechanism of a freed market to end any real exploitation there might be!So, let me ask you this: what prevents you from holding your representatives feet to the fire to open up these markets so that progressives could beat what they think are fat, lazy, exploitive capitalist pigs?I’ll tell you the answer: You know that even your favorite ruler won't act to end this type of cronyism. The incentives to use state violence to help big corporations (or big unions) for quid pro quo profit and power is just too integral to the game of politics. In order for you to really fight the cronyism that prevents progressives from using a freed market, you’d have to become libertarians. And that’s just too “weird” for you at this point of our diffusion.So, let us grant progressives this reason!Even if we had progressives:who were sincere in their belief about “exploitation”who were clever enough to realize that they could help the victims were they to start up companies that did not exploit, andwho knew how to start and run worker companies wellWell, they couldn’t do it!Because we don’t have a freed market.Because even your conservative representatives hand out monopolies, like lollipops at a barber shop, in exchange for political power.And so, the same Big Government that progressives have been so busy building, Republicans’ have helped build. And it is this Big Government that will prevent progressives from using a freed market to compete with exploiting corportist cronies.And until the lot of you — conservative and progressive — turn libertarian and refuse to allow rulers — regardless from which party they hail — the power to Frankenstein the market to reward their cronies, well, we’re all going to be kind of stuck with big exploitive crony corporations.Score: Award one point to the Progressives.2) Progressive leaders are not sincereLook, there are definitely many of you progressives who really, really do believe that companies are “exploiting” workers/customers/window washers/etc.But we all know — and by “we”, I’m looking at you, progressives — that many of your political leaders are simply demagogues.And your demagogues don’t give a darn about cronies exploiting the little guys. Do you know why? Because demagogues are only using people’s fear and anger and envy of possibly being “exploited” to …. you guessed it … to exploit you and me and anyone else they can.It’s so ironic! The biggest exploiters of all are the progressive politicians who lead the charge to accuse their big corporate cronies of exploiting![But again, stop smirking at the irony, you conservatives out there! It’s not like you aren’t “led” by exploitive demagogues, too. Most of your politicians are also using people’s envy and greed and fear (often at progressives!) to grab ever greater power. ]How do we know leaders are exploiting people? Because, frankly, exploiting people’s envy and greed, to convince them to give the rulers violent power, works like a charm for psychopaths, and both conservatives and progressives are locked in a power struggle in a system that is designed for, and controlled by, psychopaths.“You aren’t getting everything that you deserve because those mean people over there? They are exploiting you!!!“Give me life and death power over all living things, and I, as your humble servant, will double pinky swear to take back from those bastards only what is rightfully yours but which they stole from you (And don’t worry for a second!! I won’t ever use that awesome power to steal from you!)”What mark wouldn’t respond to that appeal? I mean, we all think we deserve more than we have. And we can always point out some guy — who doesn’t work as hard or as smart or as honestly as we do — and yet he (seems to) have more (of something)!But here’s the problem that progressives face with their demagogues: those demagogues (yes, even with the ones who cry the biggest wails and who shed the largest crocodile tears for the exploited classes) have no interest in starting and running workers’ businesses. Their only interest is increasing their own power and money. And if singing the chorus of the Exploitation Song gets them their power and their money, then sing that song they will.And even their cronies — these alleged titans of industry whom progressives are supposed to hate, yet who maintain their power by suckling the public teet built largely by progressives — will be singing this same Exploitation Song with your progressive demagogues.Why would they do that? Because, you see, (the cronies will explain to you), by “working closely” with their (purchased) politicians, they can “create that essential government-business partnership” that will “end all of this exploitation”!And by singing the chorus together, the cronies and their politicians will make a few small changes — but only enough for their “We care so much” theater. The politicians will then run to the cameras to praise the “progress” they have all made. And all together they’ll continue to exploit and plunder and hamstring taxpayers and consumers and small companies to continue building their power and money.It’s just what they do.You want to know what they won’t be doing? Creating those worker-owned factories that progressive non-demagogues really think might work.3) Don’t Know Nuttin’ ’Bout BidnessWhich brings us to the intellectual backbone of progressivism — those professors of sociology, of (Keynesian) economics, of political science, of women’s studies, of black studies, etc., the ones who fill kids’ brains with nonsensical political and economic ideas about how evil is business, and how “capitalism” has led to poverty and to the starvation of billions.These guys couldn’t create a real business venture if their life depended on it. And that’s why they work in a protected environment often paid for by the government stealing from you to pay them to shill for the rulers. If these profs were handed a thriving business, they would run it into the ground — even with an abundance of government subsidies — faster than you can say Solyndra.Their only brush with a free market? Where they had to try to create enough value that customers would buy their stuff without being forced by government violence? Was when their parents mixed four scoops of Country Time Lemonade into a gallon pitcher, opened a wobbly card table on the sidewalk, and begged a few of their neighbors to buy a paper cup filled with lemon-imitating chemicals for fifty cents.But it is this extensive intimate sales experience within the free market that informs these intellectuals’ confidence, extrapolating their sidewalk lemonade corporate experiences to lecture to even less experienced kids (who were prohibited from even selling lemonade by cronyist laws purporting to “protect the children” from being exploited by business (and who might have otherwise learned how to create real value)) about how they could create a better economy — not through freedom, but through obeying the dictates of their rulers.These die-hard socialists tell me their fantasies about how easy it is to start up businesses and how they (if only they weren’t so busy shagging newly-minted-adult coeds in the library stacks) would run these businesses, and I — who have been involved in dozens of startups — will shake my head and wonder — these fools should be physically removed from any classes where business or the economy is talked about at all.Their archetype of all “capitalists” is Ebenezer Scrooge, and their model of workers is some waif in a Dickens overwrought, hyperbolic newspaper serial.And it is using these cartoonish caricatures — on top to their extensive personal experience creating lemon-based businesses — that inspire their web of lies to misguide innocent naive college students about what a freed market is and how businesses work.But, let me tell you, these apparent fools are not really fools. They know that they don’t have a clue to how to run a business. They know that should they try, they’d be bankrupt before noon. Their business skill at creating value for customers and workers is at such a level that they would deserve — maybe — training for barista job under the watchful management of a pimply-faced recent high school dropout, but that’s about as far as their abilities would place them in a freed market.And so, even though they’ll describe how easy it would be for a Workers’ Council to decide on which products to produce, and where to source material, and how to distribute the product, and even though they’ll assure a gullible student body that customers won’t die from mismanagement in their socialist paradise, they cleverly stay as far away as they can from actually trying to create a real business where humans would have the power to exercise choice.4) HypocritesThere is an important class of progressives who are anti-capitalists, not because of their personal love for workers and customers, but because of their own guilt for how they abuse their workers and how they use government violence to crush little guys, and how they establish monopolies to exploit their customers. <0830>These are the folks who constantly are talking about “Giving Back”. See, one does not “give back” unless one has stolen something from someone else. If you earned what you have by your own labor, you “give” the product of your labor (from the love in your heart) to someone else. But if you’ve stolen something that someone else labored to create, then the proper term would be “to give back”. <1071>This class of wealthy but oh-so-anti-capitalist progressives would not be wealthy if they themselves were not exploiting their workers, their customers, and their suppliers. And being progressives who cheer on the state’s violent subjugation of us all, they have no disinclination to use the built-in government cronyism system to obtain their unfair advantage.But because that is how they made their wealth, they then extrapolate to every successful business person. This is what we call “projection”. But just because they used government to abuse others doesn’t mean that there are not really great people out there who created their businesses by win-win agreements with workers, with customers, and with suppliers, and who are therefore creating real value for society.Now, these wealthy progressives may well bore us to tears about what ought to happen with workers’ co-operatives, but the fact is that they don’t really have much experience with win-win, and frankly, they’re too fat, happy, rich themselves using government to give up their crony profits.So, you better be very careful and not employ these charlatans to show you how your worker factory ought to run. They don’t know.5) Risk AverseAnd the final reason I’ll explore with you is that folks whose every solution is automatically to turn the world into one giant government bureaucracy — with guaranteed above-market pay, benefits, and pensions, and ironclad protection from ever being fired regardless of performance — are not the type of people who are successful risk takers to build risky businesses where customers and workers have choice. <1232>The people who succeed in building a business that serves customers, workers, and suppliers — in a freed market where no one is being violently subjugated — are those who are willing to labor hard to build a nest egg, and then risk losing everything they have labored so hard to create up until now, to maybe build something maybe great in the futureThey must eschew any guarantee of current remuneration for their labors, and instead accept the possibility of ruin, in exchange for the upside of possibly of maybe making a profit in the long-term future off of their gratification delay and hard sweat equity.They may not focus on it, but they understand, at an existential level, the high probability of failure of a new venture — of losing all their past, saved up labors they invested in cash, of losing all the late-hour labors they spend unremunerated to build the venture, and of losing all the past labors of their friends and family who trusted them and invested their savings in them, only to walk away with zero, zippo, nada, nothing to show for everything they tried, except perhaps a bit better understanding of their limitations as creators, as visionaries, and as business managers.And so, while some of the progressive leaders could unite socialist workers to invest their life savings and to work for nothing for a while in order to build something greater, many of these worker-investors would be too nervous about the risk.There are just personalities who don’t like risk. They want riskless, guaranteed remuneration for their labors right now. I give you a week’s worth of work; in exchange, you give me money for food, shelter, a party, a vacation; and I benefit by not having to lie awake at night wondering if everything I have labored on over the last decade will be lost.6) Hatred of ProfitI promised you that #5 was the last one, but there are so many, and I have to mention briefly one more. The problem is that most progressives hate “profit”. They talk about “profit” as though it were an evil thing.Well, guess how your labors are ultimate paid for by a business?You invest all your labor in the factory and in your machines. And then, you invest your labor to get your supplies and to pay the people you employ to run your machines. And finally, you sell your product. And for a long time after, you do not make enough revenues to cover even your on-going expenses of your supplies and your employees.But you persevere and you work nights and weekends. And you sell to new customer segments. And eventually, you start covering your overhead costs. Now, remember, you haven’t yet paid yourself back for the factory building or for the machines. All you have is an operating profit, and those machines are going to wear out, so you better keep working really hard before those machines break down.But with an operating profit, you do start paying yourself a mere pittance. And so encouraged, you redouble your efforts to make better product and find the customers who value it the most, and then convince them to buy your product (perhaps due to that AOC Seal of Approval).And about 10 years down the road your revenues start covering not only your on-going supplies and payroll, but the replacement costs for your factory and machinery. Finally, you are making a profit!!! And only now, can you start paying yourself that rich rich profit that progressives sneer so much at.Well, if you hate “profit” so much that you can’t say it without sneering, what chance do you have of actually ever doing the really hard work that creates real profit. How hard do you work for something you hate?And if you never do create a real profit, then your factory was ultimately a waste of resources for society. You spent more of society’s wealth creating and selling your (failed) product than your product was worth to society. Your factory, without a love of profit, is going to be a net loss for society. Your lack of profit informs you that you have destroyed value in the worldAnd many progressives understand that without embracing profit, they can’t embrace the necessity of creating that profit, and they won’t ever be able to create a profit.And if this is true, any attempt at a “worker’s factory” by profit-haters will be a net loss.TL; DR;The bottom line is that there are a number of reasons why progressives cannot start up worker-run factories to put greedy, rent-seeking capitalists out of business. Some of these are self-inflicted. Some are amenable by having progressives move back towards permitting a freed market and preventing corporatists from using all that power they give to rulers. But some are intrinsic to a worldview that does not accept man’s inability to predict the future.Progressives’ reliance on government requires believing the demagogues when they give their false assurances that rulers not only see the future, but can control it. Creating real value for customers and for workers, when everyone is free to make their own choices for their own lives, requires recognizing that other people’s reactions and preferences are going to be different than one’s own, and thus, creating a business that actually creates real value for others will always be a risky venture.Giving up the false assurance of demagogues for the risk of an uncertain future in order to create real value is the biggest obstacle for progressives.See Related:1106: How can libertarians not support worker-run cooperatives?0557: Who is killing the mom and pop stores?1285: What is the libertarian position on worker cooperatives?1254: Why do some people believe that businesses get the better deal in voluntary employment?0989: Why do some people believe that the wealthy steal their wealth rather than creating economic value?0884: Why do some people believe that the redistribution of wealth is wrong?0860: What do entrepreneurs just "get" that other people don't?1232: Why do private companies deliver quicker and better than the government?1357: Does education make a person more likely to be left wing?0869: Why do some people get paid thousands of times more than other people?1470: How can I be a capitalist without any capital?1063: Is entrepreneurship the best way to escape poverty?0334: Should teachers or entrepreneurs run schools?0283: How to earn higher wages?0830: Why do libertarians assume progressives envy the wealthy?1071: What do libertarians think of the "You didn't build that" argument?→ More essays on <Entrepreneurship and Business Management> by Dennis→ Return to the <Table of Contents> for Dennis’ Libertarian Essays<, RunBusiness, WagSlave,>