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Freakonomics did an excellent podcast investigation on the corruption and efficiency of the Delaware legal code regarding corporations, bankruptcy, tax evasion

Freakonomics did an excellent podcast investigation on the corruption and efficiency of the Delaware legal code regarding corporations, bankruptcy, tax evasion and money laundering. According to the people they interviewed, almost all laws regarding any business practices are written not by lawmakers but by lawyers. Honestly, I couldn't figure out whether that was good or bad, but it seemed dishonest because lawyers aren't responsible to adhere to the values of the constituents of the state. - https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-does-one-tiny-state-set-the-rules-for-everyone/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-does-one-tiny-state-set...

danielheath 3y ago
To me, that’s like complaining that software requirements are written by software people instead of user representatives; sure, you can do it the other way around, but it largely leads to poorly written requirements.
- thghtihadanacct 3y ago
  ... but at least those poorly written requirements benefit the user. I would rather less than perfect rules written to benefit me, the citizen, than calculated rules written to benefit corporations that have enough money to play this shell game.
  - arcticbull 3y ago
    Poorly written requirements benefit someone, but there's not really any reason to think it would benefit you specifically. They may just as well benefit someone who seeks to harm you, or at minimum doesn't care what happens to you.
  - danielheath 3y ago
    If the user wants software that actually meets their needs, they want the requirements to be reasonably unambiguous, to have interactions with other tech thought through, etc. To achieve that requires special training, and paying someone with that training to figure that stuff out is a good idea. If you want laws that actually function in the legal system, pay a lawyer to write them (at your direction). "Written by a lawyer" does not mean "to represent the lawyers interests" any more than "written by a developer" means "to represent the developers interests".
- midoridensha 3y ago
  In more formal environments, software requirements are NOT written by software engineers: they're written by systems engineers.
seizethecheese 3y ago
I hated this episode. I wanted to actually learn about Delaware and corporations, not just be angry about it.
- from 3y ago
  It also is just a misleading set of complaints by a bunch of activists. > CASSARA: ... overseas doing training, talking about the importance of cracking down on money laundering. And I would invariably have a student or a colleague come up to me and say, “Yeah, Mr. John, I hear you, but we’re conducting a money laundering investigation in my country, and it goes to your country, it goes to the state of Delaware. We can’t get any information about this company. Can you help us?” There was nothing I could do, and I was just embarrassed. Just embarrassed. If these overseas people really did trace money to Delaware then they would not have a problem getting the beneficial owners because banks are required to store it under the customer due dilligence rule. If you say "well they may have given the banks misleading information" then there's no reason to think they would have given the government the correct beneficial ownership information either (courts in some circuits have held giving fake KYC data is bank fraud [punishable by up to 30 years in prison] whereas the penalty for deliberately submitting false information under the Corporate Transparency Act will be 3 years). > WEITZMAN: ... Why would we set up a bifurcated system like that? Only because Delaware doesn’t want to add another question to its form, “Who are you?” And then ask its registering agents to verify that you are who you say you are. > CASSARA: The bottom line is it comes down to money, okay? Half the reason the registry was established was so that it would be *unified*. If states (plus the various territories of the US) were storing ID information all on their own special systems it would delay the implementation of the registry by decades. So they made one federal government registry. Yes, there's a trade off, but the alternative is no registry.
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  This is what bothers and annoys me about Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and even The Daily Show The audience acts like they went out of their way to get a less biased news source and edutainment but then they skirt around everything, and all their relatable jokes are just deflections where they never gets into the nuance of whatever they just made you aware of its like, awareness ragebait, instead of nuance. good for an overview but just the tip of the iceberg
NoboruWataya 3y ago
Pretty much all laws of any complexity are written by lawyers. The lawyers are engaged by the lawmakers to write the laws, so that they are written properly and actually work. Just like government software is written by software developers and government buildings are built by construction workers.

danielheath 3y ago

To me, that’s like complaining that software requirements are written by software people instead of user representatives; sure, you can do it the other way around, but it largely leads to poorly written requirements.

thghtihadanacct 3y ago
... but at least those poorly written requirements benefit the user. I would rather less than perfect rules written to benefit me, the citizen, than calculated rules written to benefit corporations that have enough money to play this shell game.
- arcticbull 3y ago
  Poorly written requirements benefit someone, but there's not really any reason to think it would benefit you specifically. They may just as well benefit someone who seeks to harm you, or at minimum doesn't care what happens to you.
- danielheath 3y ago
  If the user wants software that actually meets their needs, they want the requirements to be reasonably unambiguous, to have interactions with other tech thought through, etc. To achieve that requires special training, and paying someone with that training to figure that stuff out is a good idea. If you want laws that actually function in the legal system, pay a lawyer to write them (at your direction). "Written by a lawyer" does not mean "to represent the lawyers interests" any more than "written by a developer" means "to represent the developers interests".
midoridensha 3y ago
In more formal environments, software requirements are NOT written by software engineers: they're written by systems engineers.

seizethecheese 3y ago

I hated this episode. I wanted to actually learn about Delaware and corporations, not just be angry about it.

from 3y ago
It also is just a misleading set of complaints by a bunch of activists. > CASSARA: ... overseas doing training, talking about the importance of cracking down on money laundering. And I would invariably have a student or a colleague come up to me and say, “Yeah, Mr. John, I hear you, but we’re conducting a money laundering investigation in my country, and it goes to your country, it goes to the state of Delaware. We can’t get any information about this company. Can you help us?” There was nothing I could do, and I was just embarrassed. Just embarrassed. If these overseas people really did trace money to Delaware then they would not have a problem getting the beneficial owners because banks are required to store it under the customer due dilligence rule. If you say "well they may have given the banks misleading information" then there's no reason to think they would have given the government the correct beneficial ownership information either (courts in some circuits have held giving fake KYC data is bank fraud [punishable by up to 30 years in prison] whereas the penalty for deliberately submitting false information under the Corporate Transparency Act will be 3 years). > WEITZMAN: ... Why would we set up a bifurcated system like that? Only because Delaware doesn’t want to add another question to its form, “Who are you?” And then ask its registering agents to verify that you are who you say you are. > CASSARA: The bottom line is it comes down to money, okay? Half the reason the registry was established was so that it would be *unified*. If states (plus the various territories of the US) were storing ID information all on their own special systems it would delay the implementation of the registry by decades. So they made one federal government registry. Yes, there's a trade off, but the alternative is no registry.
yieldcrv 3y ago
This is what bothers and annoys me about Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and even The Daily Show The audience acts like they went out of their way to get a less biased news source and edutainment but then they skirt around everything, and all their relatable jokes are just deflections where they never gets into the nuance of whatever they just made you aware of its like, awareness ragebait, instead of nuance. good for an overview but just the tip of the iceberg

NoboruWataya 3y ago

Pretty much all laws of any complexity are written by lawyers. The lawyers are engaged by the lawmakers to write the laws, so that they are written properly and actually work. Just like government software is written by software developers and government buildings are built by construction workers.