Backpage Raided, CEO Arrested on Sex-Trafficking Charges

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 1:17 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #124

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> opening fraudulent accounts couldn't have accrued any benefit for the bank Actually, in the hearing Senator Warren tried to connect the fraudulent accounts to the stock price, which would have been a direct benefit for the bank: > You squeezed your employees to the breaking point so they would cheat customers and you could drive up the value of your stock and put hundreds of millions of dollars in your own pocket.…

Senator Warren is really good at generating sound bites for people who have no idea about how companies work but are abstractly mad at them. The idea that WF would engage in systematic fraud to goose revenue by about $2.4 million is absurd (or add a bunch of accounts generating only that much in revenue--as if Wall Street analysts won't compute revenue per account).

Post by blfr » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #146

twblalock wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are talking about 5,000 current employees being fired and many employees who were fired for reporting it. If he didn't know, then he must not know other things about Wells Fargo that are equally important. I'm sure that's the case, and I'm sure it's also the case for most CEOs of massive companies. Wells Fargo has more than 250,000 employees and more than 6000 branches -- more branches than any other US bank. T…

It's about 5% of US employees, concentrated in one part of the organization.

Post by vertex-four » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 1:28 PM UTC

empthought wrote: post #159

Quarrelsome wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every model has trade-offs, the trade-off of the Nordic model is that clients are less willing to disclose information which makes it more difficult for sex workers to weed out violent troublemakers. Implementing the Nordic model would in some cases undo some recent advances in identifying and blocking these ugly clients and result in some workers being violently abused or even possibly killed. Don't go thinking ther…

> Implementing the Nordic model would in some cases undo some recent advances in identifying and blocking these ugly clients and result in some workers being violently abused or even possibly killed. Sorry to break the news to you: all clients are ugly clients, since they're all just fine with the idea that people's bodies are something to be bought and sold.

Post by vertex-four » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 1:32 PM UTC

empthought wrote: post #167

vertex-four wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the question. Slavery is immoral because it's immoral to curtail the rights of people indefinitely. Which rights does consensual sex work curtail?

The right of a person to not have sexual access to their body be reduced to the object of purchase with the purpose to gratify a person who holds economic power over them. Purchasing sex is an abuse of power. This isn't really an opt-out right; surely there are people who would "consent" to situations of slavery or apartheid. This doesn't mean we should make those things legal.

Post by empthought » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

vertex-four wrote: post #168

empthought wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right of a person to not have sexual access to their body be reduced to the object of purchase with the purpose to gratify a person who holds economic power over them. Purchasing sex is an abuse of power. This isn't really an opt-out right; surely there are people who would "consent" to situations of slavery or apartheid. This doesn't mean we should make those things legal.

That's a very specific right, and very very based in a specific morality, isn't it? There's certainly a good many people who don't think sex is as magical or special a thing as you obviously do. Many think of sex work as nothing more special than being expected to perform labour for several hours a day for a pittance.