Steve Nguyen runs two Airbnb units in a downtown Victoria apartment building, including one decorated and paying homage to the television show, “Friends”. He says he’s still reeling from the news he soon won't be able to operate it as a short-term rental since he doesn’t live there.
Remember this moment the next time someone says that business people deserve wealth beyond the wildest dreams of avarice because they “took a risk”.
The whole “took a risk” stuff is so dumb because in most cases what they risk is ending up with less money… which is still more than most people have throughout their lifetime.
I’d feel totally safe risking 900 million USD if I already had 1 billion USD. What’s the worst that can happen, like, really?
To add on to that, what gives people a special right to be able to take “risks” like that in the first place? It’s not like the basis for risk taking is distributed in a way that most people can, so they’re taking advantage of most people not even being able to as well as it being little real risk.
The risk actually complete and utter bullshit anyway, especially if you’re operating under a corporation.
Consider I take out $1m to start business. I buy a property and equipment for the business. I operate it for a year, make some money, then go bankrupt.
The bank takes back the business assets and … That’s it. They can’t touch your personal assets unless you agreed to put them up as collateral. If it was a sole proprietorship your credit score goes to zero which sucks for a few years, but if it’s a corporation the company goes bankrupt and you walk away scot free.
So I spent a year running a business, made some money, and wind up in the same place I started. What did I lose? Maybe a credit score and that’s it.
If there is nothing to lose, then there is no risk.
Also remember these AirBnb owners are more often like you and I except absolute shitheads looking to exploit the market for their own personal gain.
The problem may be partly those in charge but we need to point the finger at ourselves. We all bought into the same system that encourages this shitty behaviour.