Word from the Founder — a personal note on why POLCAP exists.
PolitiCap is my pet project. Many years ago I started the idea as a collaborative project with a group of people.
The beginning
Well over two decades ago, on 11 September 2001, I had just woken up and was getting ready with my wife to bring the children to school. We lived in Los Angeles, California at the time. The phone rang — irritation, because we were in a hurry. But it was a call from my home country, the Netherlands, so I answered. My mother. I will never forget what she said: “Turn on the TV, it is WAR!!!” When I did, everything went silent as I saw those horrible images.
The stock market
What happened next were rumors. Everybody knows the extent of the conspiracy theories that abounded. They were nasty and some were extremely compelling. I will not repeat any of them, except one. A rumor claimed that certain people became very rich off the attacks by short-selling companies in the WTC buildings before the attacks happened — implying “they knew.”
As unfamiliar as I was with the stock market, I am curious by nature. I had already picked up trading stocks in 1999; my first trade ever was on VA Linux Systems. I am an engineer and have always had a fondness for Linux, so when that IPO came and some colleague engineers wanted to join it, I decided to join them as well. It was epic: VA Linux became the biggest IPO ever at that time. But after that I did not take trading so seriously anymore. It looked, after all, like a casino for sure.
But I still had that trading account. I wanted to understand how short-selling companies in the WTC could make people rich. So I began my research by investing another US$1,000 into the stock market — this time trying to understand all the mechanisms: brokers, shorting, ECNs, the SEC, clearing, news agencies, and so many more. I found it extremely gratifying to learn and spent a whole year doing so. I learned that it is not at all like a casino after all — but it is extremely addictive, like a casino.
Politics
I have always been a sharp critic of politics — who isn’t, right? It is sometimes almost as if these people have “lying and cheating” in their job description and therefore proudly advertise it on their CV. But while that may still be true, politics also controls nearly all aspects of our lives. I noticed that “democracy” is nothing other than the next-best mousetrap. It does not give anybody a true voice or true power. It gives people the impression thereof. And while that may be cheating, it also gave rise to countries where people do in fact feel empowered and do in fact behave as if they truly are. One can argue whether it “works well,” but it definitely “works.”
But the thing I never really liked is that “representative” part. Every four years in most Western democracies, people dress up a theatre like the Colosseum in Rome; the politicians do for a few months what they do best — they lie and cheat their way into “getting elected.” Then after they have been elected the wheels turn, they do not do what they promised, and they have devised big machinery to explain why. In my country, the Netherlands, it is called “coalition.” There are umpteen parties and none will ever get a total majority of votes, so after the election they have to form a coalition. That is where the excuses start. In typical Dutch fashion they have many meetings — called polderen in good Dutch — on how they are going to break their promises to their electorate. Anyway, without going too deep: every democracy has its excuse machine.
Solution
I decided to start coding POLCAP. A daring and bold move, as there are no two things that people dislike more than:
- Politics
- The stock market
So yes — it is a very hard sell. I know. Mea maxima culpa. It probably explains why, at the time of writing, nobody has signed up yet. The only way I could have made it even worse would be by involving lawyers.
But there it is. Yes, PolitiCap — where one can buy shares in politicians. Is it a casino? No. It might look that way at first, but it requires skill, insight, and thorough research into those people doing our bidding (well, if you live in a democracy, that is). But what is the purpose, Fred? Well, that really depends on you. You are the end-piece of PolitiCap — not me, not GROKAI, not the code: you are. If you sign up in volume and trade in volume, the price of politicians’ shares will begin to move. If you are with only six, like the current AI Gladiators, you will not make any difference.
But if you are with a million, and you buy those TRUMPD shares after he finally does something truly meaningful, that ticker will start to go up. If you are with a million, maybe even TRUMPD will notice, stand in front of the mirror, and talk to himself smiling: “Hey, the people actually do like me!!!” Right now that is just smoke and mirrors — but PolitiCap can make it real.
So I rely on you to sign up and help me make this vision come true.
Thank you so much for your attention.
Related: POLCAP · TRUMPD · GROKAI · Documentation
