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No. A billionaire will fundamentally employ thousands of people. At least one of those thousands will be a crook. It is statistically impossible to find a large

No. A billionaire will fundamentally employ thousands of people. At least one of those thousands will be a crook. It is statistically impossible to find a large enough organization without some crime occurring. Perfect controls and checks-and-balances are impossible (and not necessarily even desirable). Even if, hypothetically, no crime were to occur, with enough customers and employees, at least a few will be disgruntled, and willing to lie, exaggerate, delude themselves, or misunderstand what's happening. The result is that expose hit pieces are easy enough to craft against anyone powerful enough. The key question is always about how common improper behavior is, who knows about it, under what cultural standards it is considered improper, etc. I'm not trying to undermine the underlying point: Most people who got very rich engaged in at least some corruption to do it. But a key word there is 'most.' Virtually all are possible to publicly discredit, and it's important to read such pieces carefully.

kazinator 7y ago
While that's true, the criminals in the billionaire's organization are working to help themselves more than the billionaire. If their activities benefit the billionaire, that's just a side effect. In contrast, some crooks rob their employers outright.
- woofie11 7y ago
  Both happen quite a bit, in large organizations. In most cases, the person at the top sets KPIs (e.g. a salesperson should sell at least $10 million of goods), and incentives around those KPIs. Helping oneself means achieving those KPIs by any means -- bribes, kickbacks, fudging numbers, hiring prostitutes, etc. Some of those are illegal, and some merely unethical. In some cases, that aligns with corporate interests (more sales!). In some cases, it undermines corporate interests (bad reputation). In some cases, the person on the top quietly supports bad behavior, and in some cases, they have just a hard time stopping it. It's often quite hard to tell all of those apart. But we haven't really found a way to avoid at least some of those happening in any organization above, say, a few hundred people. Even at a hundred people, it's tough. One of the underemphasized advantages startups can have over big companies is pretty good alignment and protection against this sort of stuff. Everyone knows each other, and works as a genuine team.

kazinator 7y ago

While that's true, the criminals in the billionaire's organization are working to help themselves more than the billionaire. If their activities benefit the billionaire, that's just a side effect. In contrast, some crooks rob their employers outright.

woofie11 7y ago
Both happen quite a bit, in large organizations. In most cases, the person at the top sets KPIs (e.g. a salesperson should sell at least $10 million of goods), and incentives around those KPIs. Helping oneself means achieving those KPIs by any means -- bribes, kickbacks, fudging numbers, hiring prostitutes, etc. Some of those are illegal, and some merely unethical. In some cases, that aligns with corporate interests (more sales!). In some cases, it undermines corporate interests (bad reputation). In some cases, the person on the top quietly supports bad behavior, and in some cases, they have just a hard time stopping it. It's often quite hard to tell all of those apart. But we haven't really found a way to avoid at least some of those happening in any organization above, say, a few hundred people. Even at a hundred people, it's tough. One of the underemphasized advantages startups can have over big companies is pretty good alignment and protection against this sort of stuff. Everyone knows each other, and works as a genuine team.