Venture Capital: Marc Andreessen Pans Western Unpreparedness; Says It’s Time to Build

April 21, 2020 | News, Venture Capital
https://dailyalts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/10082198173_5e68de1412_c-Andreessen-Horowitz.jpg

Marc Andreessen calls our unpreparedness for the pandemic a “monumental failure of institutional effectiveness.”

Renowned entrepreneur, software engineer, investor and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen writes  a hard-hitting essay titled “It’s time to build.”

It’s not just the inexcusable dearth of coronavirus tests, cotton swabs, reagents, ventilators, ICU beds, surgical masks, and medical gowns.

“We also don’t have therapies or a vaccine — despite, again, years of advance warning about bat-borne coronaviruses,” writes Andreessen.

Andreessen: We chose not to build

What is worse, we have no direct method to transfer desperately needed money to millions of unemployed workers and businesses, he observes.

What happened?

“We didn’t *do* in advance, and what we’re failing to do now,” writes Andreessen. “And that is a failure of action, and specifically our widespread inability to *build*.”

“We chose not to have the mechanisms, the factories, the systems to make these things. We chose not to *build*.”

How the system is failing Americans

Andreessen cites a long list of failures that crush the dearest aspirations of most Americans.

“The things we build in huge quantities, like computers and TVs, drop rapidly in price. The things we don’t, like housing, schools, and hospitals, skyrocket in price. What’s the American dream?”

“The opportunity to have a home of your own, and a family you can provide for. We need to break the rapidly escalating price curves for housing, education, and healthcare, to make sure that every American can realize the dream, and the only way to do that is to build.”

The lack of will

Why are housing prices skyrocketing in San Francisco?

Where are the gleaming skyscrapers and spectacular living environments in all our best cities?

Why can’t we educate every 18-year old at Harvard?

Elon Musk’s “alien dreadnought”-like factories – why can’t we build them across the country?

Why don’t we replace all carbon-based power plants with zero-emission nuclear reactors?

According to Andreessen, we lack the desire, the will to build these things. “We need to *want* these things.”

Rebooting the American dream

Our nation and our civilization were built on production, on building, by our forefathers and foremothers.

‘There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that’s to build,” writes Andreessen.

Related Story:  Venture Capital: VC Investing and Life After the Pandemic

Image credit: Flickr                                                

Free Industry News

Subscribe to our free newsletter for updates and news about alternatives investments.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.


Shape

Latest Alternative Investment News

https://dailyalts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/AMD_headquarters_santa_clara.624da707519a6.jpg
Artificial Intelligence: AMD Takes On Rivals In The AI Chip Sweepstakes
December 7, 2023     Artificial Intelligence, News

Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while…

https://dailyalts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/RHCEU-Inline.jpg
Digital Assets: Robinhood Debuts Crypto Trading On Its App In The EU
December 7, 2023     Digital Assets, FinTech, News

Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) has launched its Crypto app in the European Union (EU), allowing eligible customers to engage in crypto trading with the added incentive of earning Bitcoin rewards. Customers…

https://dailyalts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Samsung_UK_Samsung_Pay_Lifestyle_0552-revised-Pictogram-23.11.30-1024x744-1.png
FinTech: Samsung Electronics Ties With Mastercard’s Wallet Express
December 7, 2023     FinTech, News

Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) have partnered to launch the Wallet Express program, offering banks and card issuers a cost-effective way to expand digital wallet offerings. Through…

https://dailyalts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Revaia-founders.jpg
Venture Capital: Revaia, Europe’s Biggest Female-Led VC Firm, Racks Up $160M For Second Fund
December 7, 2023     ESG and Sustainability, News, Venture Capital

Revaia, Europe’s largest female-founded venture capital firm, has successfully raised €150 million ($160 million) for its second fund, Revaia Growth II. The funding was secured from sovereign wealth funds, family…