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The average American may earn something like 125k in 30 months. 700k in exchange for a small chance of 30 months in jail probably sounds like a good deal to a

The average American may earn something like 125k in 30 months. 700k in exchange for a small chance of 30 months in jail probably sounds like a good deal to a purely rational and amoral person.

dkyc 5y ago
The average American likely isn't in a position to make business spending decisions that would warrant a 700k bribe, though.
bgirard 5y ago
But it's not usually the average American in a position to receive bribes like that. 700K for an executive might not be a good deal for most.
- notch656a 5y ago
  Depends on the probability of being caught, which is usually extremely low.
  - bgirard 5y ago
    True, but at those levels the marginal utility of money is much lower than 30 months of your life. Clearly some people take the chance, I wouldn't.
jjulius 5y ago
Edit: Half-awake, math wrong, ignore me.
- notch656a 5y ago
  If 700k - p_caught * (value of 30 months of your life + 700k + reputation + fines) is greater than 0, a rational and amoral person should execute the trade.
- colejohnson66 5y ago
  Am I reading your comment correctly? GP says that, over 30 months, the average American makes $125k. Given a $68k per year average that you provide, that's $170k after 30 months, which is even more than GP estimated. Even if the average were $40k/year, that's still $100k after 30 months.
  - notch656a 5y ago
    Said they made "something like." I'm sorry for not making it clearer it was meant to be a rough guideline not a precise number.
  - jannyfer 5y ago
    Looks like jjulius used 20 months in a year.
    - jjulius 5y ago
      I used 12 months in a year and went up to 20 months, too tired to realize that they were talking about 2.5 years instead of 1.5. Original comment edited, my mistake, let's all go back to sleep now.
0x0nyandesu 5y ago
The average executive in a high money industry like film is clearing a lot more than that and is looking for any and all advantages that come from the position. It can come in any form from having a company car to getting an executive producer credit on some show they actually didn't produce. You're naive if you actually think this doesn't happen everyday in the film industry / culture. That's just business and it's part of the free market. I don't see how any of this is any business of the feds.
codegeek 5y ago
Except that he has to return the 700k, Pay additional fine of 50K , go to Jail for 30 months and not to mention that his reputation is ruined and he will never get another high profile white collar job. Yea, totally worth it.
- notch656a 5y ago
  In retrospect yes. If you can prove the probability he would be caught is low enough, then you could probably show it was worth the risk. I don't know what that probability is, but based on how rare executives are actually nabbed over this sort of thing I'm not so sure we can say with certainty he made a bad bet.

The average American may earn something like 125k in 30 months. 700k in exchange for a small chance of 30 months in jail probably sounds like a good deal to a purely rational and amoral person.

dkyc 5y ago

The average American likely isn't in a position to make business spending decisions that would warrant a 700k bribe, though.

bgirard 5y ago

But it's not usually the average American in a position to receive bribes like that. 700K for an executive might not be a good deal for most.

notch656a 5y ago
Depends on the probability of being caught, which is usually extremely low.
- bgirard 5y ago
  True, but at those levels the marginal utility of money is much lower than 30 months of your life. Clearly some people take the chance, I wouldn't.

jjulius 5y ago

Edit: Half-awake, math wrong, ignore me.

notch656a 5y ago
If 700k - p_caught * (value of 30 months of your life + 700k + reputation + fines) is greater than 0, a rational and amoral person should execute the trade.
colejohnson66 5y ago
Am I reading your comment correctly? GP says that, over 30 months, the average American makes $125k. Given a $68k per year average that you provide, that's $170k after 30 months, which is even more than GP estimated. Even if the average were $40k/year, that's still $100k after 30 months.
- notch656a 5y ago
  Said they made "something like." I'm sorry for not making it clearer it was meant to be a rough guideline not a precise number.
- jannyfer 5y ago
  Looks like jjulius used 20 months in a year.
  - jjulius 5y ago
    I used 12 months in a year and went up to 20 months, too tired to realize that they were talking about 2.5 years instead of 1.5. Original comment edited, my mistake, let's all go back to sleep now.

0x0nyandesu 5y ago

The average executive in a high money industry like film is clearing a lot more than that and is looking for any and all advantages that come from the position. It can come in any form from having a company car to getting an executive producer credit on some show they actually didn't produce. You're naive if you actually think this doesn't happen everyday in the film industry / culture. That's just business and it's part of the free market. I don't see how any of this is any business of the feds.

codegeek 5y ago

Except that he has to return the 700k, Pay additional fine of 50K , go to Jail for 30 months and not to mention that his reputation is ruined and he will never get another high profile white collar job. Yea, totally worth it.

notch656a 5y ago
In retrospect yes. If you can prove the probability he would be caught is low enough, then you could probably show it was worth the risk. I don't know what that probability is, but based on how rare executives are actually nabbed over this sort of thing I'm not so sure we can say with certainty he made a bad bet.