johncarpinelli

I like this idea. If any rent-seeking group achieves market dominance, the government should regulate their prices. For example, the price of prescription drugs and higher education should be set by the government. Laissez-faire capitalism only works in markets with price competition.

Ultimately, I think most industries will evolve into government regulated monopolies. Consolidation is a standard part of the life-cycle for most markets. We should embrace the efficiency that dominant players can achieve.

With regard to individuals, I think a universal basic income is the long-term solution. Let a few people become billionaires, while the masses are paid to relax at home. There is a large amount of wasted resource in industries like retail, marketing and sales. Society would probably be better off if those industries shrank.

There is also the option of part-time consulting to pay the bills while building the startup. As a Django consultant, this person could probably make $50k annual income by consulting a few days per week. The rest of his time could be dedicated to the startup business.

Even if you have low living costs, you should still consider opportunity costs of not working. A consultant making $100k per year who takes two years off to do a failed startup has effectively lost $200k in income.

I like the Australia idea, but I'd save up $10k before departing. Relocating to another country is expensive.

I suggest to find some freelance programming jobs online. He could make some money writing articles about the stock market for SeekingAlpha.com.

In terms of education, I think he should do some courses with Coursera or one of the other free online institutions.

Stefan,

Lower your expectations. Be grateful for your health and living in a developed country like Switzerland. You have awesome mountains there.

Startups are an escapist fantasy for millions of people. I would guess 99% of web startups make no money. Most HN readers are in the same situation as you, but that doesn't make them losers. Enjoy life and think of your startup like a lottery ticket.

I agree that home robots will be task specific and not anthropomorphic. Examples I would buy if they were cheap:

-robot to stack and unstack the dishwasher

-robot wheels to put the garbage bin out for weekly collection

-robot mower to cut the lawn

-robot laundry hamper to take clothes to washing machine when full

-robot to clean kitchen benches and stove-top nightly

OK, I am sold on Go as my next language for web applications. Unfortunately, I can't throw away the existing PHP/MySQL code. Any suggestions on how to integrate Go and PHP into a single web server? Should I be using FastCGI for Apache to call the Go programs?

Yes natural gas overtook coal as the leading source of electricity in the USA. The transition was in 2012.