So said billionaire businessman Mark Cuban tonight on the television show “Shark Tank” on CNBC. The show features wealthy venture capitalists like Cuban who listen to pitches from entrepreneurs and then invest (or not) their own money in the ventures. The business in question involved an app that could help citizens contest traffic tickets.
One of the other “sharks,” Kevin O’Leary, explained that he is in the extremely heavily-regulated mutual fund business and that the government “allows me to make money” despite all the regulation. He dropped out, he explained, because of his fear that the government would no longer allow him to make money in his mutual fund business if he was invested in a business that deprived government of revenue. This was a good example of how there can never be real free speech in a heavily-regulated society. Criticizing government as a business person can bankrupt you or send you to prison. “See you at the IRS audit,” O’Leary said to Cuban after Cuban closed the deal ($700,000 for 7% of the business).
8:24 pm on January 15, 2016
