Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#31

Post by jomamaxx » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 8:58 AM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #3

known wrote: post #2

When a common man does it, it's called bribery. When a lobbyist does it, it's a great law.

Most of the people listed in this article aren't politicians, and so can't enact any laws. And even when they are politicians, it looks like they are almost always retired politicians, who can't enact any laws. Some of them are even counter-establishment figures like satirists and even hackers (in the security sense). Hillary Clinton is a prominent example, but the article's explanation is that she is invited as a re…

"Most of the people listed in this article aren't politicians, and so can't enact any laws. "

They are connected individuals who will provide introductions, lobbying and favours for the people paying for the speech.

"but the article's explanation is that she is invited as a retired secretary of state, as other retired secretaries of state have been, rather than as a current presidential candidate, which seems reasonable."

This is really a little naive.

Hillary Clinton is running for Pres with a 70% chance of getting it, her husband is the #1 most connected man in the world.

Over 50% of the private entities she met while Sec of State donated to the Clinton slush fund, to the tune of over $57 million dollars.

It's a form of soft corruption - 100%.

A $250K 'speaking fee' is just another way to transfer money from an org, to a political entity.

A 'donation' to the Clinton Global Initiative is simply a donation to the de-facto Clinton PAC/fund.

It's a form of corruption and it's not a secret. You don't donate to Clinton fund - then get an introduction/favour by Clinton by accident.

I'm singling out Clinton because you did, but it's the same across the board.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#32

Post by camillomiller » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 8:59 AM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #24

camillomiller wrote: post #6

Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker? I've seen a lot of speeches in my professional life, and the ones that stuck the most were usually from non-famous low-paid speakers. The more famous and accomplished (and American, actually) the speaker is, the more the speech would steer toward a self-eulogy of the person's work achievements. And it's boring. It's a bit sad that most of the…

You just reminded me of when I went to a conference and watched Daniel Libeskind talk about a work in progress. I get that famous individuals enjoy talking about their work but this was the first time I nearly suffocated from such an overbearing ego. Which I guess would've been fine if the specific work he was showing was profoundly influential or of high excellence? Instead it seemed like a certain distinct aestheti…

I've recently seen a talk from the world famous photographer chase jarvis. OMG, that was some huge amount of self promoting bullshit, interspersed with some incredibly dull lifecoaching advice. It was bad, really bad.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#33

Post by jomamaxx » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:00 AM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #15

leereeves wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> she is invited as a retired secretary of state, as other retired secretaries of state have been, rather than as a current presidential candidate Did she leave the part of her that was a future (at the time) presidential candidate at home?

> That seems reasonable? Yes it does to me. If they invite many former secretaries of state it seems reasonable to invite this one. Who cares what she's currently working on if that's not why she was invited? The article even says she hardly mentioned her candidacy. If you're desperate to get worked up about this I can see where you would find the problem, but I think a charitable interpretation is a former secretary…

" Who cares what she's currently working on if that's not why she was invited?"

Because if you receive piles of money while running for president, and then pass on favours after getting it, we call that 'bribery'.

I don't want to sound mean spirited, but your position is incredibly naive.

That she is running for president is extremely relevant.

Same for all politicos.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#34

Post by jomamaxx » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:02 AM UTC

leereeves wrote: post #17

chrisseaton wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That seems reasonable? Yes it does to me. If they invite many former secretaries of state it seems reasonable to invite this one. Who cares what she's currently working on if that's not why she was invited? The article even says she hardly mentioned her candidacy. If you're desperate to get worked up about this I can see where you would find the problem, but I think a charitable interpretation is a former secretary…

> a charitable interpretation Indeed. If you trust her, you may not see a problem, but if you don't trust her, it's easy to argue this is disguised bribery. There's a huge difference between a former secretary of state with no prospects of power in the future and someone everyone knew would run for President in a few years.

It's a conflict of interest wether you trust her or not.

It's a very thin line, this game.

Clinton should have recused herself from all Clinton Global Initiative issues a long time ago.

The massive Clinton fund with millions in donations from all sorts of political actors, mostly in nefarious places, is worse than Trump's excuses for not releasing his taxes (which he should definitely do).

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#35

Post by jomamaxx » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:04 AM UTC

aleem wrote: post #21

Networking is one of the likliest reasons. A Clinton dinner at 10k per head will attract a certain kind of audience. The speech itself may not carry as much importance as the presence of other dignitaries, industrialists, upcomers, lobbyists and so forth.

+ People get to say: 'I saw so and so' + It establishes the cred of the audience, i.e. all the bankers can talk to clients about how they say/met so and so. + It's an indirect way to contribute to campaigns without it technically being a campaign donation + It's a form of buying favour + And yes - it attracts other people whom you might be interested in meeting with etc..

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#36

Post by netcan » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:11 AM UTC

"that’s like asking why anyone would pay Beyoncé or the Beatles a million dollars just to play a few songs"

This almost feels like playing dumb. The fact that a legitimate public speaking economy exists and has a dynamic which is not based on payola does not mean that a dirtier side does not. Like other pieces of the money-in-politics puzzle there are legitimate, non-corrupt reasons to hand powerful people 6 figure checks for dropping by. The problem is that it also gives cover to the non-legitimate reasons.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#37

Post by saurik » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:13 AM UTC

throwaway287391 wrote: post #9

Do they give a discount for speaking gigs in/around their hometown? It seems like 90+% of the "work" (and certainly the time) involved in most of the out-of-town speaking gigs would be traveling to and from them, rather than the actual speaking.

I give a lot of talks, and coming up with engaging content and organizing it, often with visual aids (though I realize many of these extremely highly paid people don't use those; but I will say that having engaging material without visuals is even harder....), is enormously time consuming. The time I spend traveling is meanwhile relatively meaningless. To compare: thing of a stand up comedian, and ask yourself if 90% of their "work" is driving to the venue.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#38

Post by throwaway287391 » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:38 AM UTC

saurik wrote: post #37

throwaway287391 wrote: post #9

Do they give a discount for speaking gigs in/around their hometown? It seems like 90+% of the "work" (and certainly the time) involved in most of the out-of-town speaking gigs would be traveling to and from them, rather than the actual speaking.

I give a lot of talks, and coming up with engaging content and organizing it, often with visual aids (though I realize many of these extremely highly paid people don't use those; but I will say that having engaging material without visuals is even harder....), is enormously time consuming. The time I spend traveling is meanwhile relatively meaningless. To compare: thing of a stand up comedian, and ask yourself if 90%…

Sure, but the time spent creating the talk content is amortized over all the times it's given. I doubt most of the speakers listed in the article are creating custom talks for each speaking gig they're hired for. (From the article: "A $20,000 to $200,000 check may or may not buy a customized speech.") In my experience, if I can repeat (or mostly rehash/remix) previous talk(s) I've given, the marginal cost of giving another one is ~3 hours for one in my area vs. 1-3 full days for out of town.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#39

Post by perlgeek » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:39 AM UTC

saurik wrote: post #37

throwaway287391 wrote: post #9

Do they give a discount for speaking gigs in/around their hometown? It seems like 90+% of the "work" (and certainly the time) involved in most of the out-of-town speaking gigs would be traveling to and from them, rather than the actual speaking.

I give a lot of talks, and coming up with engaging content and organizing it, often with visual aids (though I realize many of these extremely highly paid people don't use those; but I will say that having engaging material without visuals is even harder....), is enormously time consuming. The time I spend traveling is meanwhile relatively meaningless. To compare: thing of a stand up comedian, and ask yourself if 90%…

The real question is how often you can give the same talk (possibly with slight variations) in different locations, because each performance of the same speech amortizes the time cost to prepare it initially.

Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?

#40

Post by ramblenode » Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 9:46 AM UTC

> In the case of politicians like Hillary Clinton, many observers see a more sinister explanation for how a speech can be worth $225,000: the speech is buying political influence.

> It’s impossible to say exactly how much the desire to influence politicians inflates their speaking fees.

Goldman is, as with all their investments, expecting a positive return. I'm not sure why this is presented as some kind of alternative theory.