Re:Ask HN: Are you working on interesting technical problems?
by aalleavitch on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @09:13AM
(#17237279)
To be clear, I’m criticizing the common notion that the market is inherently beneficial or that it contains the solutions to all problems (though I don’t mean to accuse you of holding such views). Some problems necessarily require non-market solutions.
But, I'm not trying to comment on either of those, just that you can create utility for a poor person and still have a viable business. If it relies on government for funding, because society has decided it's worth funding that sort of work, so what? We have an entire defense industry in the US based on that idea. Most of our education is too. Other countries have their entire healthcare systems based on that idea. You can decide you don't want to be paid directly by taxed money, but that's on you, not on the viability of such a model.