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> ... such criminal corporations enjoy an advantage over law-abiding corporations. There is no advantage to criminality. It is a general rule of law that no on

> ... such criminal corporations enjoy an advantage over law-abiding corporations. There is no advantage to criminality. It is a general rule of law that no one should be able to profit from his crimes. That rule applies to corporations as well as individuals and there are many ways to hold corporations and their managers and employees accountable (civil and criminal liability are two of them). My point was that passive investors shouldn't be criminally liable for criminal actions of employees of the corporation that they knew nothing about.

rectang 6y ago
> There is no advantage to criminality. Of course there is. That's why YCombinator prefers "naughty" companies that break rules but get away with it. http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html > "Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter." Is there any doubt that YCombinator would be investing in TicketMaster if it were a startup? Is there any moral distance between the scofflaw insouciance of AirBNB and TicketMaster? TicketMaster just eliminated a threat to its quasi-monopoly through criminality and were rewarded because the criminal penalty was utterly inconsequential compared with the commercial advantage obtained. They have "won" in the "marketplace", as that criminality-advantaging "marketplace" was constructed. The unjust demolition of TicketMaster's competitors, and the resulting systemic economic inefficiency, is underpinned by rhetoric like yours.
- moosebear847 6y ago
  Seriously, as messed up as this is, what TicketMaster did is completely rational if the game is all about making $$ and the rules say, "$10 million fine. 1 guy go to jail. go directly to go and continue to collect $x billion/year".

rectang 6y ago

> There is no advantage to criminality. Of course there is. That's why YCombinator prefers "naughty" companies that break rules but get away with it. http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html > "Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter." Is there any doubt that YCombinator would be investing in TicketMaster if it were a startup? Is there any moral distance between the scofflaw insouciance of AirBNB and TicketMaster? TicketMaster just eliminated a threat to its quasi-monopoly through criminality and were rewarded because the criminal penalty was utterly inconsequential compared with the commercial advantage obtained. They have "won" in the "marketplace", as that criminality-advantaging "marketplace" was constructed. The unjust demolition of TicketMaster's competitors, and the resulting systemic economic inefficiency, is underpinned by rhetoric like yours.

moosebear847 6y ago
Seriously, as messed up as this is, what TicketMaster did is completely rational if the game is all about making $$ and the rules say, "$10 million fine. 1 guy go to jail. go directly to go and continue to collect $x billion/year".