Trend in public companies

The Triumph of the Virtual Corporation

This article takes an interesting perspective on what's happening to public companies here in the U.S.  I was thinking about this around about the time of the Facebook IPO, from which I definitely got the impression that IPOs were no longer being used to actually raise capital for companies, but instead were being used by the founders as a way to cash out.  Unfortunately, I think it says a lot about U.S. business, and none of it is good (not to me), although this article seems to try to put a positive spin on the whole thing.  We don't make much here in America anymore, and now, we don't even really care about the businesses we build.   I can't help but wonder where we'll be in another decade if the trend continues, and at this point, I don't see any catalyst to change the trend either.  Perhaps by then we'll all be working at McDonalds or Walmart, depending on government aid, while the few that are lucky enough to be successful complain about taxes they pay to send welfare checks to the rest of us.  I'm feeling a little gloomy tonight.