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I don't mean to play devils advocate here, but let me apply two other possible interpretations: My statistical prior that someone with money did questionable t

I don't mean to play devils advocate here, but let me apply two other possible interpretations: My statistical prior that someone with money did questionable things to obtain it has only been rising with time as I see increasing evidence of illicit business practices among the highest earners. (everything from insider trading to the more recent wage fixing). Secondly, is it reasonable to assume that one might find distaste for people with money who flaunt it? And that this might cause one to share that distaste for others with money, even if they don't flaunt to such a degree? I realize the latter half is a generalization that can cause problems, I'm just trying to state a rather "human" response. If it is constantly shoved in your face that certain people drive cars worth enough that it could bring your family out of debt for life, you may grow bitter at this. I believe money can be made, I just also believe there are a lot of "bad actors" in the system, for whom it is "stolen" to some degree, and it only seems to be becoming more common.

digitalengineer 13y ago
You are correct. The part of stolen money would not be a problem if we had a functioning government that actually -you know- prosecuted people, like they did with the savings & loans crisis where more than 1,000 bankers were convicted by the Justice Department.
crusso 13y ago
increasing evidence of illicit business practices among the highest earners Corruption is the core problem. I think that worry about corrupt businesses is misplaced when a corrupt government is 10x worse. everything from insider trading There's a good example right there. Congress can inside trade. It's absolutely extraordinarily corrupt. They wrote a law a while back to prevent it when there was some press on it, but then quietly scaled back the restriction. Consider this: Political office holders can lie to us outrageously and never face repercussions besides (perhaps) not being re-elected in a future cycle. You could list case after case of politicians who knowingly made definitive, verifiably false claims that have caused real damages to people. If they were officers of a public company, they would be sued into oblivion. They would be hounded by the Justice Department. But since they're in the political club, they've written the rules so that they can't be held accountable.
- markvdb 13y ago
  <quote>I think that worry about corrupt businesses is misplaced when a corrupt government is 10x worse.</quote> Worrying about private sector corruption misplaced? One shouldn't have to tolerate _any_ kind of corruption.
  - crusso 13y ago
    Don't disagree, but in terms of priority on how we're going to fix the world...
snowwrestler 13y ago
Be wary of confirmation bias. If you believe that succeeding requires acting badly, then you are more likely to remember and believe stories that frame success that way.

digitalengineer 13y ago

You are correct. The part of stolen money would not be a problem if we had a functioning government that actually -you know- prosecuted people, like they did with the savings & loans crisis where more than 1,000 bankers were convicted by the Justice Department.

crusso 13y ago

increasing evidence of illicit business practices among the highest earners Corruption is the core problem. I think that worry about corrupt businesses is misplaced when a corrupt government is 10x worse. everything from insider trading There's a good example right there. Congress can inside trade. It's absolutely extraordinarily corrupt. They wrote a law a while back to prevent it when there was some press on it, but then quietly scaled back the restriction. Consider this: Political office holders can lie to us outrageously and never face repercussions besides (perhaps) not being re-elected in a future cycle. You could list case after case of politicians who knowingly made definitive, verifiably false claims that have caused real damages to people. If they were officers of a public company, they would be sued into oblivion. They would be hounded by the Justice Department. But since they're in the political club, they've written the rules so that they can't be held accountable.

markvdb 13y ago
<quote>I think that worry about corrupt businesses is misplaced when a corrupt government is 10x worse.</quote> Worrying about private sector corruption misplaced? One shouldn't have to tolerate _any_ kind of corruption.
- crusso 13y ago
  Don't disagree, but in terms of priority on how we're going to fix the world...

snowwrestler 13y ago

Be wary of confirmation bias. If you believe that succeeding requires acting badly, then you are more likely to remember and believe stories that frame success that way.