this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Just a reminder that the dot com bubble was a problem for investors, not the underlying technology that continued to change the entire world.
That's true, but investors have a habit of making their problems everyone else's problems.
Not that you're wrong per-se but the dotcom bubble didn't impact my life at all back in the day. It was on the news and that was it. I think this will be the same. A bunch of investors will lose their investments, maybe some adventurous pension plans will suffer a bit, but on the whole life will go on.
The impact of AI itself will be much further reaching. We better force the companies that do survive to share the wealth otherwise we're in for a tough time. But that won't have anything to do with a bursting investment bubble.
Lots of everyday normal people lost their jobs due to the bubble. Saying it only impacted the already rich investors is wrong.
There really isn't much that can harm rich people that won't indirectly do splash damage on other people, just because their actions control so much of the economy that people depend on for survival.
Lots or some? I'd say "some".
edit: Really, though. How many people lost their jobs? Obviously, this being a techy space, anecdotes will lean towards people knowing someone personally. Tech people know other tech people.
But in a country of 300 million, how many people was it? Was unemployment significantly moved by it? No, it was not, because for the most part the websites that failed did not employ very large numbers of people, and there were other jobs available in the field.
Apparently everyone on lemmy except us
I don't know about that. Not a single person I know or I've met has ever said they were affected by it in any way. In any state.
Well there are two of us right here in the comment section. I had a great job at a startup online retailer. They had a good business model, it was a great place to work.
We had been beating our sales projections and were only a couple months away from being profitable when the Sept 11 attacks happened. Within two weeks, our VC funding stopped and we were all out of jobs because the company owners had to choose between paying rent and paying us. They chose to pay us all severance, bless them for that.
Thankfully I was young, didn't own a house, didn't have kids. But a lot of my colleagues did.
Well there's two of us in this thread saying otherwise.
Checkmate
Fully admits to being a literal child at the time. Still talking like they have something to contribute about the situation they fully admit to knowing nothing about. Gets snarky with the people who were actually impacted by it.
Fucking why do people like you feel the compulsive need to open their mouths about every god damned thing? Maybe your opinion, I dunno, isn't relevant.
I would like to introduce you to a different possibility. It's called keeping your mouth shut and listening. Crazy idea, I know, but it's often followed by this thing called learning.
Give it a try sometime.
When did I say I was a child at the time? Where are you coming up with this stuff?
So you're angry and making things up for no reason? Nice, guy. Thumbs up.
Huh interestingidea. You should try taking your meds and chilling out.
It is not a competition. But your claim that normal working people was not hurt by the dotcom bubble can not be dismissed.
You're playing checkers...
Connect four, actually.
So according to this thread, 50% of people got affected by the dotcom bubble, right?
I went and looked up some actual numbers. According to this article:
So a lot of people if you put them all in a room together, but not a huge number across the global economy.
Sure. Why not. If you're an idiot.
As someone who was getting a comp sci degree at the time, a huge percentage of my cohort could not find jobs in any IT position, let alone programming, so they ended up taking what they could get. A couple years later when companies started hiring again, no one wanted them because they hadn't worked in the industry and their degree was stale (which is bs, they were just able to hire much more experienced people for the same salary). Most of those people then ended up paying off student loans for degrees they never used.
Meanwhile, those who could stayed in school flooding the market with Masters and PHD candidates which raised the bar for all coming after.
That still affects hiring practices to this day.
Are you maybe too young to know people who were actually working at the time. Obviously the life of a high schooler wasn't very affected.
Right. Everyone I know was obviously in highschool? I was long out of highschool lol
I'd reason that has more to do with your circles than anything else.
I entered college right around that time. I know multiple families who lost their home from it. My parents nearly did. My Grandparents attempt to downsize was delayed by almost five years of sitting with their house on the market and they ended up having to absolutely slash the sales price to sell their home.
I know people who lost their jobs as primary breadwinner in their household and never were able to get back into the workforce in any significant capacity until just before the pandemic.
I know many people who graduated college 2008-2012, had wonderful credentials/resumes, who weren't able to find stable employment or a starter "career" job until 2017 or later.
Hell, the 2008 crash was the big tipping point for the public idea that if you worked hard and did good in school, you could just expect things to work out well for your employment.
There's all sorts of shit you could use to pick apart these folks, blame what occurred on choices they made, and you wouldn't be entirely off base for some of them. However, that doesnct change that despite your personal circles, it had a significant impact.
We're going anecdote v anecdote here. Your insistance of a lack of effect on people crumbles the moment anyone comes in and says they know people who were.
The dotcom bubble was one of the middle dominos on the way to the 2008 collapse, the fed dropped interest rates to near zero and kept them there for years, investor confidence was low, so here come mortgage backed securities.
In addition, the bubble bursting and its aftermath is what allowed the big players in tech (Amazon, Google, Cisco etc) to merge to monopoly, which hasn’t been particularly good
Most Americans didn't even feel the effects of the 2008 collapse. Most recessions aren't noticed by most of the country. These things are blown way out of proportion by news conglomerates that have a vested interest in it.
Um no. So many of my friends unemployed. So many people were losing houses. It was nuts. Everyone noticed. The government even gave us “please don’t riot” money.
All your friends lost thier jobs and houses. Uh huh.
I even remember going to downtown Detroit to repair scratches on desks on entire floors of a empty of employees skyscraper right on Jefferson. Hipsters bought an empty skyscraper as well up in New Center. But yeah, no one affected.
The company I worked for went from 12 to 5 employees. I bought a house for 15k because so many people lost them and the prices collapsed. Did you live through it? Maybe you were just insulated or ignorant of what was happening.
I already said it didn't affect me or any of my friends or any of my family, or anyone else I know.
You have got to be kidding me. I don't know a single millennial who wasn't affected badly by 2008.
Not a single one! Let me guess, you know one.
You're either trolling or you live under a fucking rock.
I wasn't, but after everyone on lemmy suddenly became affected by 2008 I have been trolling.
It's funny though, there was a post recently about how most Americans don't even notice the effects of a recession and everyone agreed in the comments. But here magically it's the opposite.
this has got to be trolling.
Is this Elon musks account? Because for you to be so out of touch as to say the insane shit you just said you must be extraordinarily wealthy or a hermit living in the woods with nobody else around
You're so cool
What are your thoughts on the Great Depression or either World Wars?
Idk, probably not the same thoughts you had deciding to chime in to a 5 day old discussion.
Good for you. But perhaps fuck off, because some of us lost jobs, homes, and financial stability.
Some of you is not most of Americans.
Have you considered accepting that you're wrong on this? It's not a personal disaster to realize that just because you didn't personally see the impact, there was none. Instead of sticking to what you thought, you might learn insights. Perhaps they can be valuable when analyzing the current bubbles.
Nah I'm m always right. Your mom says so.
Yeah. Note how we're having this conversation over the web. The bubble didn't hurt the tech.
This is something to worry about it you're an investor or if you're making big career decisions.
If you have a managed investment account, like a 401(k), it might be worth taking a closer look at it. There's no shortage of shysters in finance.
In Canada, a good example is cannabis industry. Talk about fucking up opportunities.
Why would it be any different with tech?
It’s about the early cash-grab, imo.