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No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

theregister.com

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Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#41

Post by ceejayoz »

bko wrote: post #38
ceejayoz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-... > Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe will shell out $415 million to put to rest an antipoaching civil lawsuit that accused the companies of conspiring not to hire each other's employees. > Filed by former employees of the companies involved, the lawsuit shed a light on the practice of some major tech industry players of allegedly working together to agree n…

The answer is pretty simple. Make those clauses unenforceable, as well as non compete clauses. You could do it relatively easily without new regulations and fines and all the bs associated with new anti big tech initiatives. Overall I don't think it's a winning proposition for the companies involved. So if they want to have an internal rule that forbids them from hiring people, they're just shooting themselves in the…

These weren't contract clauses; they were direct conspiracy between top execs via email.

> One email exchange recounted how Jobs asked Schmidt to stop Google from trying to hire one of Apple's engineers. "I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote to Schmidt on March 7, 2007.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#42

Post by nyokodo »

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #3

Neoliberalism/anarcocapitalism has stoned these corporations, I hope it has arrived the day that we start putting them back in line by punishing well these monopolistic practices, anti unions strategies, stock dumping and buybacks, fiscal havens, mass layoffs, etc. it has gone out of hand. Companies can’t just leech out of general population undisturbed

> Neoliberalism/anarcocapitalism has stoned these corporations

Either you’re implying that neoliberalism is the same as anarchocapitalism, or you’re suggesting that Apple embodies both at once. In the grand argument over how much government we need “neoliberals” would answer “less”, but a long way from answering “none” like the ancaps. Try and find an AnCap who wants government police, a state military, etc and then try and find a neoliberal who doesn’t want them. That is a pretty impactful difference! I know of no evidence to suggest that Apple falls into either camp let alone both at once! Perhaps these are examples of terms that for a certain crowd have become mere epithets used with only superficial understanding. It might also explain the alleged sins you then list off assuming we all would agree they apply.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#43

Post by lebuffon »

This book has an interesting insight on these matters.

https://www.amazon.ca/Technofeudalism-Killed-Capitalism-Yani...

To me the 20th century leaders completely failed to understand the immensity of the changes brought by information tech and so failed to use the legal tools available. The anti-monopoly laws were only applied to Microsoft, as I recall, around the browser/Operating-System combination. That showed they had little understanding of the big picture IMHO.

So they missed that one, imagine how badly they are going to miss the AI revolution...

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#44

Post by bko »

retrac wrote: post #31
bko wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "hoarding of talent"? These are human beings and they have a right to work where they want. Let's be clear, apple "hoards" talent by offering them competitive pay and benefits. If others want to compete they should offer something as compelling. It doesn't have to be money, I personally left for less money multiple times. It could be working on an interesting problem or with smart people.

> If others want to compete they should offer something as compelling Perhaps they cannot? Monopolies can apply to the purchase of labour, too. Indeed, the lack of viable competition, would be circumstantial evidence, to support the argument that there is a monopoly. Monopolies will sometimes overpay for labour in the same way they will undercharge for products - it can squeeze competitors out.

It's not a closed system with a fixed number of employees. They overpay for labor, which encourages more engineers to go into the field, which increases supply. Never underestimate the elasticity of supply.

Sorry but you're not going to convince me that high wages are a bad thing.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#47

Post by Workaccount2 »

lolinder wrote: post #36
zug_zug wrote: post #18

The interesting or perhaps scary question is how many times are news hosts told to drop a topic/story and they go along with it and the public never even knows a topic was dropped? It's worth asking how we can make our systems safer against large corporations shady influence.

> It's worth asking how we can make our systems safer against large corporations shady influence. Just to be clear, this story is about Apple exerting editorial control over content that they paid for, not about them trying to influence the content on the Daily Show. Anyone who's worked in media has stories of topics being suppressed by the owners, and that's definitely something that could stand to be more transpare…

I'm failing to see how that makes this any better.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#48

Post by retrac »

ghaff wrote: post #39
retrac wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If others want to compete they should offer something as compelling Perhaps they cannot? Monopolies can apply to the purchase of labour, too. Indeed, the lack of viable competition, would be circumstantial evidence, to support the argument that there is a monopoly. Monopolies will sometimes overpay for labour in the same way they will undercharge for products - it can squeeze competitors out.

I've known plenty of people who left the big West Coast tech employers for elsewhere--possibly/probably for less money. Lots of reasons not to want to work for Google or Amazon.

Yes, and plenty of people quit the mines in company towns, and went to work in the big city. Considerable practical buyer or worker choice may exist, in an emerging monopolistic situation. Monopoly concerns aren't always the evil villain literally destroying all competitors, a single really large company can just be so big it distorts the market everywhere it turns. For an example on the consumer side, think Microsoft in the 1990s and early 2000s. In hindsight, obviously some monopoly concerns, even though there was niche and viable competition, in every sector they competed in.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#49

Post by RankingMember »

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #3

Neoliberalism/anarcocapitalism has stoned these corporations, I hope it has arrived the day that we start putting them back in line by punishing well these monopolistic practices, anti unions strategies, stock dumping and buybacks, fiscal havens, mass layoffs, etc. it has gone out of hand. Companies can’t just leech out of general population undisturbed

I'm not sure what you mean by "stoned" in this context (or seemingly putting neoliberalism and anarcho-capitalism on equal footing), but I 100% agree with the rest of your statement. It'd be nice if we could reanimate Jack Welch and Milton Friedman for public spankings, because they're (among a few choice others, including one 1980s U.S. president) a huge part of why things are the way they are right now.

Re: No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

#50

Post by ghaff »

ceejayoz wrote: post #34
ghaff wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is pretty much the opposite of what the complaint upthread is making. The lawsuit you reference was basically about not "hoarding talent" by paying more money.

The post upthread didn't assert they hoarded talent by paying more . They hoarded talent by conspiring to make it harder to leave, which had the bonus of not having to pay them as much.

Of course paying higher salaries is a big part of it. Yes, they're also somewhat prestigious to some people and imagine there's at least some interesting work. But it's lot like they're chaining people to their desks or generally forcing people into unbreakable long-term employment contracts. In CA, there aren't even non-competes generally.

Most people at Google, to name one, are free to walk out the door tomorrow.

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