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Kinda reminds me of that time the Cupertino City Council asked Steve Jobs for free Wifi and iPads in the hearing to approve Apple's new campus: https://www.you

Kinda reminds me of that time the Cupertino City Council asked Steve Jobs for free Wifi and iPads in the hearing to approve Apple's new campus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M&t=790 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M&t=790 But I guess they all had a good laugh in the end, so it doesn't count?

1123581321 6y ago
It’s not illegal to joke about bribery.
- sjwright 6y ago
  Correct. And it’s not illegal to investigate when nominal jokes about bribery may be construed as code inviting actual bribery.
  - 1123581321 6y ago
    I recognize the clever point. Investigations in cases such as these will gather evidence to bring to a grand jury, which will issue indictment. So investigation would either proceed to either the grand jury trial, or be abandoned due to lack of evidence. In the case of jokes, it would be the latter, and experienced offices would recognize this early, perhaps before beginning, and focus on other cases.
- mlyle 6y ago
  I'm not sure why people are treating this like it's bribery. Free wifi would be something that inures to the benefit of the city / jurisdiction, not primarily to the individual decisionmakers or their department. It may not be something legitimate that they can make planning approval dependent upon, but an elected body trying to negotiate something that sweetens the deal for their electorate is completely legitimate. Indeed, back before California ended development controls, my city's planning department effectively ran a huge reverse auction, picking the housing developments that would make the biggest street and park improvements in excess of the statutory minimums to authorize for each year's development quota. (A bit more complicated than that: various ways that the development exceeded building code or had additional amenities also counted for points in the "competition").
rjkennedy98 6y ago
Yeah, Apple doesn't pay taxes, they sure got the last laugh.
thathndude 6y ago
Thank you for posting. This is exactly what I thought about. Anyone other than Steve probably would have said something like “that’s something we can look into and explore.” Leave it to Steve to be like “nah. We pay our taxes. That’s good.”
- jxramos 6y ago
  Steve: I'm a simpleton I've always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. That's why we pay taxes. Now if we can get out of paying taxes I'll be glad to put up Wi-Fi.
  - baby 6y ago
    Here's how you write a quote: > Steve: I'm a simpleton I've always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. That's why we pay taxes. Now if we can get out of paying taxes I'll be glad to put up Wi-Fi. reply
    - talaketu 6y ago
      False - that's how you write it.
- paxys 6y ago
  Steve Jobs - We pay our taxes Apple's accounting team - Well actually..
  - prepend 6y ago
    I’m sure you’re joking, but I think Jobs was referring to property taxes. I’m not sure how much other tax they could contribute to a local town (sales tax is probably much less than the property tax). Looks like the property at 1 Infinite Loop was assessed at $330M last year, https://www.sccassessor.org/index.php/online-services/property-search/real-property https://www.sccassessor.org/index.php/online-services/proper...
dehrmann 6y ago
Half of the joke was probably the Cupertino city council being jealous of Google providing free wifi for Mountain View. Jobs has a good point about "paying taxes." In the last few years, a lot of people in the Bay Area outside tech are saying things like "why doesn't tech do more to build more housing." They pay taxes, and tech workers living in the cities are paying income and property taxes. The communities should be asking themselves why they, themselves, aren't building more housing. What did they think these added tax dollars should be going it?
- fastball 6y ago
  You don't even need tax dollars to build more housing, all you need is not NIMBYism. Unfortunately the Bay Area has that in spades.
  - electriclove 6y ago
    It exists everywhere
    - fastball 6y ago
      It is demonstrably worse in BA than in most other places in the US. Places like Japan don't seem to have much of a problem with it at all.
      - et-al 6y ago
        Places like Japan have negative birthrates and restrictive immigration policies. NIMBYism is a reaction to a sudden influx of newcomers to an area. As such, hot remote work spots like Bend, OR are very likely experiencing a similar NIMBYist mindset.
        Schiendelman 6y ago
        Tokyo has continuous growth, and almost no NIMBYism. While Japan as a whole has negative birthrates and restrictive immigration policies, Tokyo has neither. The comment you’re responding to is a real, important difference between Japan’s response to growth (in the Tokyo area) and other cities and regions’ responses to growth. Handwaving it doesn’t help.

1123581321 6y ago

It’s not illegal to joke about bribery.

sjwright 6y ago
Correct. And it’s not illegal to investigate when nominal jokes about bribery may be construed as code inviting actual bribery.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  I recognize the clever point. Investigations in cases such as these will gather evidence to bring to a grand jury, which will issue indictment. So investigation would either proceed to either the grand jury trial, or be abandoned due to lack of evidence. In the case of jokes, it would be the latter, and experienced offices would recognize this early, perhaps before beginning, and focus on other cases.
mlyle 6y ago
I'm not sure why people are treating this like it's bribery. Free wifi would be something that inures to the benefit of the city / jurisdiction, not primarily to the individual decisionmakers or their department. It may not be something legitimate that they can make planning approval dependent upon, but an elected body trying to negotiate something that sweetens the deal for their electorate is completely legitimate. Indeed, back before California ended development controls, my city's planning department effectively ran a huge reverse auction, picking the housing developments that would make the biggest street and park improvements in excess of the statutory minimums to authorize for each year's development quota. (A bit more complicated than that: various ways that the development exceeded building code or had additional amenities also counted for points in the "competition").

rjkennedy98 6y ago

Yeah, Apple doesn't pay taxes, they sure got the last laugh.

thathndude 6y ago

Thank you for posting. This is exactly what I thought about. Anyone other than Steve probably would have said something like “that’s something we can look into and explore.” Leave it to Steve to be like “nah. We pay our taxes. That’s good.”

jxramos 6y ago
Steve: I'm a simpleton I've always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. That's why we pay taxes. Now if we can get out of paying taxes I'll be glad to put up Wi-Fi.
- baby 6y ago
  Here's how you write a quote: > Steve: I'm a simpleton I've always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. That's why we pay taxes. Now if we can get out of paying taxes I'll be glad to put up Wi-Fi. reply
  - talaketu 6y ago
    False - that's how you write it.
paxys 6y ago
Steve Jobs - We pay our taxes Apple's accounting team - Well actually..
- prepend 6y ago
  I’m sure you’re joking, but I think Jobs was referring to property taxes. I’m not sure how much other tax they could contribute to a local town (sales tax is probably much less than the property tax). Looks like the property at 1 Infinite Loop was assessed at $330M last year, https://www.sccassessor.org/index.php/online-services/property-search/real-property https://www.sccassessor.org/index.php/online-services/proper...

dehrmann 6y ago

Half of the joke was probably the Cupertino city council being jealous of Google providing free wifi for Mountain View. Jobs has a good point about "paying taxes." In the last few years, a lot of people in the Bay Area outside tech are saying things like "why doesn't tech do more to build more housing." They pay taxes, and tech workers living in the cities are paying income and property taxes. The communities should be asking themselves why they, themselves, aren't building more housing. What did they think these added tax dollars should be going it?

fastball 6y ago
You don't even need tax dollars to build more housing, all you need is not NIMBYism. Unfortunately the Bay Area has that in spades.
- electriclove 6y ago
  It exists everywhere
  - fastball 6y ago
    It is demonstrably worse in BA than in most other places in the US. Places like Japan don't seem to have much of a problem with it at all.
    - et-al 6y ago
      Places like Japan have negative birthrates and restrictive immigration policies. NIMBYism is a reaction to a sudden influx of newcomers to an area. As such, hot remote work spots like Bend, OR are very likely experiencing a similar NIMBYist mindset.
      - Schiendelman 6y ago
        Tokyo has continuous growth, and almost no NIMBYism. While Japan as a whole has negative birthrates and restrictive immigration policies, Tokyo has neither. The comment you’re responding to is a real, important difference between Japan’s response to growth (in the Tokyo area) and other cities and regions’ responses to growth. Handwaving it doesn’t help.