Reading the title has affirmed to me that we are living in a bubble (and it doesn't look good). I just can't get it through my head how an investment of that size will EVER pay off. A major reason people buy dogs is because they want to get out and walk more. If they can't they outsource it to a teenager you or your friends know, there's no need for a middleman in most cases. (If it was baby-sitting I could understand more it as there is far less flexibility.)
WeWork's valuations have also seemed strange to me, when they don't have any assets of infrastructure to warrant such a high value. There's very little stopping others renting office space, in fact a friend of mine has done just that.
It's important to remember that unsustainable things can last longer than you anticipate. I firmly believe the bubble will burst (a bit, there's too much real value for a collapse), but I have no idea if it will be tomorrow or if it will be a decade from now.
The bubble talk goes back further than that. Lookup The Richter Scales for a fun example.
And yes you’d have mostly been wrong about the Facebooks of the world.
The current generation of money-losing startups is a lot more problematic. And some of the questionable IPOs have already fared pretty badly.
I’d also argue though that I’m not sure most of these companies matter much in the scheme of the larger economy. And probably not even the tech sector relative to the big employers.
WeWork's valuations have also seemed strange to me, when they don't have any assets of infrastructure to warrant such a high value. There's very little stopping others renting office space, in fact a friend of mine has done just that.