Sure, but things can <i>appear</i> to provide lots of apparent value for customers and employees (i.e. the borrowers and loan-bundlers in the pre-2007 real estate bubble), until as you say, they collapse.<p>Also, just because a small group of people (customers, employees) may derive value from a particular startup company doesn&#x27;t mean that that particular company, or the overall the ecosystem of startup companies, is creating more value than it consumes.  The effect on inequality of the overall ecosystem is what&#x27;s being debated here, and I&#x27;m not sure that anyone has a clear, data-backed understanding of which way it skews.