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The capitalism machine doesn’t care about your humility or integrity even- only that you obey the letter of the law. I learned that the hard way, work isn’t a r

The capitalism machine doesn’t care about your humility or integrity even- only that you obey the letter of the law. I learned that the hard way, work isn’t a religion with morals, it’s work and there are rules. Your second point however, “don’t be naive” agree 100%

dcow 5y ago
The first point is not about appeasing the machine… it’s about not overselling to your subordinate worker class because if they take the second point to heart they won’t buy it anyway. Just be honest and realistic and you’ll avoid looking like a crook, if you care. Maybe you don’t—you’re right such behavior is allowed in the rules.
midasuni 5y ago
> obey the letter of the law. Oh wait you’re serious. Let me laugh even harder. Breaking the law for a company is simple a cost of doing business. If that costs too ouch then the lobbying/bribe budget increases to cancel it out m, but most of the time it’s just a line of risk on the balance sheet.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  In other words, for companies, the law is a continuous function, where for individuals it's a discrete one. Where you and me have to ask ourselves, "do I break the law or not?", big companies ask themselves, "what is the optimal level of law breakage?".
  - tempestn 5y ago
    I'd argue it's not even quite that. Common law is not perfectly defined. So there aren't really levels of 'law breakage', but rather something more like, "what's the likelihood the potential legal costs of this outweigh the benefit?"
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    For some individuals it isn't even that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28543096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28543096
  - andrewingram 5y ago
    Or at least, which laws will someone go to jail for breaking vs us just getting slapped with a fine?
  - snowwrestler 5y ago
    I think it’s continuous for people too. Do we ever drive faster than the speed limit? Cross a street outside of a defined crosswalk? Do we voluntarily report all our out-of-state purchases on state taxes? If we sell something on Craigslist, do we always report that as income? I think a lot of people also have an optimal level of law breakage.
    - sokoloff 5y ago
      Selling some personal property at a loss (as is typical) is not income. The other examples are good ones.
      - snowwrestler 5y ago
        People make money on Craigslist, selling services for example.
    - hellotomyrars 5y ago
      I agree there is a spectrum of compliance for your average person with the letter of the law and the reality of everyday life (and the meaningful consequence of breaking them). Jaywalking is very unlikely to have any meaningful impact to anyone, and mostly unlikely to be enforced. But the big thing that separates your everyday person and companies is that corporations will gladly and willfully break the law, even in cases where they weigh the risk (perhaps they have a legal argument about how it’s not actually breaking the law, but it’s probably paper thin) because it can often be more profitable to commit the crime. and pay whatever fine is imposed than not commit the crime in the first place. It is incredibly rare for anyone to go to jail or be prosecuted individually for corporate crimes, and so the risk to any particular individual is exceedingly low. I can’t really think of any reasonable example where I could commit a crime as an individual and come out the other side with a net positive, despite being caught/prosecuted. Corporations aren’t playing with the same deck, and their bad behavior is constantly rewarded. Sure, they can sometimes go over the line and tank the entire operation but that is far and away the exception instead of the rule.
  - jacobr1 5y ago
    Also there are plenty of gray legal areas. Often the questions are, "Is this really breaking the law? What is the risk?" And even in cases where the managed 100% wants fully comply with existing law, there are still tradeoffs. How much do we fund internal enforcement and will that prevent us from being competitive? Which isn't so much about actively trying to break the law, but willing to risk that breakage will happen, or even naive trust of employees.

dcow 5y ago

The first point is not about appeasing the machine… it’s about not overselling to your subordinate worker class because if they take the second point to heart they won’t buy it anyway. Just be honest and realistic and you’ll avoid looking like a crook, if you care. Maybe you don’t—you’re right such behavior is allowed in the rules.

midasuni 5y ago

> obey the letter of the law. Oh wait you’re serious. Let me laugh even harder. Breaking the law for a company is simple a cost of doing business. If that costs too ouch then the lobbying/bribe budget increases to cancel it out m, but most of the time it’s just a line of risk on the balance sheet.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
In other words, for companies, the law is a continuous function, where for individuals it's a discrete one. Where you and me have to ask ourselves, "do I break the law or not?", big companies ask themselves, "what is the optimal level of law breakage?".
- tempestn 5y ago
  I'd argue it's not even quite that. Common law is not perfectly defined. So there aren't really levels of 'law breakage', but rather something more like, "what's the likelihood the potential legal costs of this outweigh the benefit?"
- jacquesm 5y ago
  For some individuals it isn't even that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28543096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28543096
- andrewingram 5y ago
  Or at least, which laws will someone go to jail for breaking vs us just getting slapped with a fine?
- snowwrestler 5y ago
  I think it’s continuous for people too. Do we ever drive faster than the speed limit? Cross a street outside of a defined crosswalk? Do we voluntarily report all our out-of-state purchases on state taxes? If we sell something on Craigslist, do we always report that as income? I think a lot of people also have an optimal level of law breakage.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    Selling some personal property at a loss (as is typical) is not income. The other examples are good ones.
    - snowwrestler 5y ago
      People make money on Craigslist, selling services for example.
  - hellotomyrars 5y ago
    I agree there is a spectrum of compliance for your average person with the letter of the law and the reality of everyday life (and the meaningful consequence of breaking them). Jaywalking is very unlikely to have any meaningful impact to anyone, and mostly unlikely to be enforced. But the big thing that separates your everyday person and companies is that corporations will gladly and willfully break the law, even in cases where they weigh the risk (perhaps they have a legal argument about how it’s not actually breaking the law, but it’s probably paper thin) because it can often be more profitable to commit the crime. and pay whatever fine is imposed than not commit the crime in the first place. It is incredibly rare for anyone to go to jail or be prosecuted individually for corporate crimes, and so the risk to any particular individual is exceedingly low. I can’t really think of any reasonable example where I could commit a crime as an individual and come out the other side with a net positive, despite being caught/prosecuted. Corporations aren’t playing with the same deck, and their bad behavior is constantly rewarded. Sure, they can sometimes go over the line and tank the entire operation but that is far and away the exception instead of the rule.
- jacobr1 5y ago
  Also there are plenty of gray legal areas. Often the questions are, "Is this really breaking the law? What is the risk?" And even in cases where the managed 100% wants fully comply with existing law, there are still tradeoffs. How much do we fund internal enforcement and will that prevent us from being competitive? Which isn't so much about actively trying to break the law, but willing to risk that breakage will happen, or even naive trust of employees.