4 ms·

Grifters are perfectly happy to lie on dozens of pointless forms because they know they’re going to grift a bunch of free money at the end. It’s the people who

by imgabe 5y ago

Grifters are perfectly happy to lie on dozens of pointless forms because they know they’re going to grift a bunch of free money at the end. It’s the people who want to get down to doing the actual work that don’t have the patience for it. An overly complicated process just encourages grifters because there’s more ways for them to create confusion and conceal what they’re doing.

_bfhp 5y ago
By the principle of charity I sympathize with this, but this doesn't hold up without evidence. For example, what are the penalties for lying/grifting in this area? Does this all vary with the degree of corruption in the particular state/city/town? Or is it all corrupted to varying degrees nationwide?
- R0b0t1 5y ago
  Historically the penalties for grifting these programs are nothing in the vast majority of cases, if it's even discovered. The problem is a bunch of frontloaded vetting that is never followed up on.
  - _bfhp 5y ago
    So these forms and processes can be essentially spammed and nobody gets any real fine or other legal penalty, even when flagrant criminality is found? It seems like there would be major incentive for press outlets to expose this as government waste or capitalist greed, so I would be curious to see any existing journalism about this.
ajmurmann 5y ago
It also encourages well-connected people.
- Eji1700 5y ago
  And massive corporations who are extremely profit driven. I was born in a very small town in California. They didn't want to become just another highway stop for shopping. They wanted to keep their small town flavor/community/charm. So of course they made TONS of rules and roadblocks to stop "The wrong people" from building there. It's now a highway stop with a bestbuy and the like....because it turns out that the massive corporate chains can pay people to sit there and jump through your hoops, but the smaller well meaning community developer will just say fuck it and move.
  - foogazi 5y ago
    > will just say fuck it and move. Nothing wrong with that People are free to choose what suits them best

by imgabe 5y ago

_bfhp 5y ago

By the principle of charity I sympathize with this, but this doesn't hold up without evidence. For example, what are the penalties for lying/grifting in this area? Does this all vary with the degree of corruption in the particular state/city/town? Or is it all corrupted to varying degrees nationwide?

R0b0t1 5y ago
Historically the penalties for grifting these programs are nothing in the vast majority of cases, if it's even discovered. The problem is a bunch of frontloaded vetting that is never followed up on.
- _bfhp 5y ago
  So these forms and processes can be essentially spammed and nobody gets any real fine or other legal penalty, even when flagrant criminality is found? It seems like there would be major incentive for press outlets to expose this as government waste or capitalist greed, so I would be curious to see any existing journalism about this.

ajmurmann 5y ago

It also encourages well-connected people.

Eji1700 5y ago
And massive corporations who are extremely profit driven. I was born in a very small town in California. They didn't want to become just another highway stop for shopping. They wanted to keep their small town flavor/community/charm. So of course they made TONS of rules and roadblocks to stop "The wrong people" from building there. It's now a highway stop with a bestbuy and the like....because it turns out that the massive corporate chains can pay people to sit there and jump through your hoops, but the smaller well meaning community developer will just say fuck it and move.
- foogazi 5y ago
  > will just say fuck it and move. Nothing wrong with that People are free to choose what suits them best