3 ms·

These speaking fees HAVE to be kickbacks, right? I've attended a few of these things before and the talks have almost no substance, and the speakers just regurg

These speaking fees HAVE to be kickbacks, right? I've attended a few of these things before and the talks have almost no substance, and the speakers just regurgitate things they've said before in the press or on official business. These don't equate to an industry leader or SME giving a talk on a technical or vocational subject.

sbaiddn 4y ago
Of course! But they're not technically illegal. So you can charge hundreds of thousands of dollars plus expenses for a one hour talk. They make more per performance than most of the biggest music stars. Consider that the "Friends" stars, at their height, only made $1 million/episode which took far more than ten hours to make and was broadcast and loved by hundreds of millions (if not billions?) around the world. Obviously it's a graft. But! How do you make this illegal within our constitutional framework? A cure must but be worse than the disease.
- varispeed 4y ago
  Just like charging $10k for a bottle of champagne is not illegal, but it means you don't have to open as many car washes to put the cash through. Just have the dealers book the table and pay cash for the champs. Then just pay tax and money is squeaky clean. Similar story with the speech circuit. Politicians do favours and then once they are out of office they go on a tour to collect payments. Everyone knows what it is, but there is no interest in making this a criminal offence, because every single politician in office wants to cash in once they are out.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  "A cure must but be worse than the disease." I meant: "A cure CANNOT be worse than the disease." - autocorrect fail
beezlebroxxxxxx 4y ago
There definitely is a kickback aspect, but another one is that they are paying these speakers for the cachet of their "presence". If you spend time in and around some of these events (thinktanks, management consulting, and Wall Street, are especially brutal for this) they are really about signaling competence. It's the same reason that they hire fresh undergrads from almost exclusively ivy leagues regardless of that fresh graduate's major -- the "name brand" of the degree is the signaling for competence. Whether the talks are actually of any substance at all is beside the point (and attendants will actually whine if the talk is too technical). Just getting them in the room and sending out the PR blasts is worth it for the longtail influence on the perception of the org.

sbaiddn 4y ago

Of course! But they're not technically illegal. So you can charge hundreds of thousands of dollars plus expenses for a one hour talk. They make more per performance than most of the biggest music stars. Consider that the "Friends" stars, at their height, only made $1 million/episode which took far more than ten hours to make and was broadcast and loved by hundreds of millions (if not billions?) around the world. Obviously it's a graft. But! How do you make this illegal within our constitutional framework? A cure must but be worse than the disease.

varispeed 4y ago
Just like charging $10k for a bottle of champagne is not illegal, but it means you don't have to open as many car washes to put the cash through. Just have the dealers book the table and pay cash for the champs. Then just pay tax and money is squeaky clean. Similar story with the speech circuit. Politicians do favours and then once they are out of office they go on a tour to collect payments. Everyone knows what it is, but there is no interest in making this a criminal offence, because every single politician in office wants to cash in once they are out.
sbaiddn 4y ago
"A cure must but be worse than the disease." I meant: "A cure CANNOT be worse than the disease." - autocorrect fail

beezlebroxxxxxx 4y ago

There definitely is a kickback aspect, but another one is that they are paying these speakers for the cachet of their "presence". If you spend time in and around some of these events (thinktanks, management consulting, and Wall Street, are especially brutal for this) they are really about signaling competence. It's the same reason that they hire fresh undergrads from almost exclusively ivy leagues regardless of that fresh graduate's major -- the "name brand" of the degree is the signaling for competence. Whether the talks are actually of any substance at all is beside the point (and attendants will actually whine if the talk is too technical). Just getting them in the room and sending out the PR blasts is worth it for the longtail influence on the perception of the org.