The Man Who Sold Shares of Himself

RougeFemme writes "This is a fascinating story about a man who sold shares in himself, primarily to fund his start-up ideas. He ran into the same issues that companies run into when taking on corporate funding — except that in his case, the decisions made by his shareholders bled over into his personal life. This incuded his relationship with his now ex-girlfriend, who became a shareholder activist over the issue of whether or not he should have a vasectomy. The experiment continues." The perils of selling yourself to your friends.

Re:Slavery?

[wjousts]

Well, I guess it voluntary.

The Unincorporated Man

[wompa]

A great read by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin about the distant future where everyone is incorporated and the one man who isn't. It might have been helpful if this guy had read that before his IPO.

Re:Slavery?

[femtobyte]

Key differences from a bank loan:
(a) you may never be able to pay it back, since the more wealth and willingness you have to buy back outstanding shares and "go private," the more those shares are likely to cost, and
(b) the bank doesn't make detailed decisions about how you live your life; only that you must pay back $XX every month (regardless of how you get it)

Re:It's a publicity stunt

[Maxo-Texas]

Our easily escapable debt is one reason the american economy has grown faster than european economies.

Once you completely wipe out in america, you could restart. It enabled americans to wipe out multiple times and take bold gambles. While a majority might just fail, enough succeeded to benefit the rest of society tremendously.

In Europe, once you wiped out once, you were done. It was very risky to wipe out and to take bold gambles.

Wow

[rsilvergun]

you put a lot of effort into a post full of hate for the poor :P. Are you really that ignorant of why people file for bankruptcy or do you get paid to spew that nonsense? A few points:

. 1. Bankruptcy is basically 8 years without credit. If you're a poor person that's a nightmare. No house and no car, both of which you need.

2. The lender should be expected to accept risk. It's funny how capitalists get shield from market risks by guys like you but workers are expected to suck it down. Workers pay for their masters bad decisions with lower standards of living.

3. Usury loans quickly become slavery. You're not really free if someone controls your access to food/shelter/health care.

4. People filing for bankruptcy have little money. They often can't afford the legal representation they need to avoid being taken advantage of. If they do hire a lawyer the settlement negotiated is often worse than the original loan terms. That's because there are hundreds of bankruptcy firms that just take your money and then take the first offer by the court. They pray on people trying to keep their heads above water by working 80 hours a week. I've known several people in that situation.

5. Nice to see you ending your post with the right wing's "Imma gettin' robbed by da poors" narrative that has absolutely no basis in fact. Well, I suppose giving all our money to 1% of the population WILL keep those damn poor people from stealing from you, if only because you'll have nothing to steal.

The way I like to put it is this: you're trying to get me to believe that a little kid with a sandwich that his mommy didn't pay for brought America to it's knees financially.

Re:Slavery?

[LordLimecat]

In state tuition-- at least in virginia, and quick research indicates this is not unusual-- does not generally require years of debt @ 7%. I borrowed from my parents, and paid it off in ~15 months, if I recall, having taken jobs waiting tables and made roughly ~1/2 of the money back. This was from a technical school which cost for 1.5 years roughly the same as it would have cost for 4 years at an in-state college.

Right now, a virginia resident could attend UVA, VA Tech, JMU, GMU, or W&M for ~ $6000 / semester. You could do your Freshman and Sophmore years at VCC (community colleges) for ~ $1600 / semester; your entire degree would hit roughly $30,000, over the course of 4 years. As a waiter, I was able to pull in $15,000 / year, at a fairly standard restaurant. Working summers even as a maintenance guy would pull in ~$2000 (2002 dollars), so worst case you are ending your school career with $22,000 in debt, and more likely (if you can pull your weight as a waiter) something like $15,000 of debt.

You CANNOT tell me it is an impossible feat to get a degree and pay your debt off, unless you are insisting on a school choice that is completely irresponsible.