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The whole thing was a scam

garymarcus.substack.com

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Re: The whole thing was a scam

#11

Post by foogazi »

mentalgear wrote: post #3

PS: If openly bribing a crony gov to cancel your competitor is now the de-facto standard of making business in the US, I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment. When the rule of law degrades into pay-to-play politics, the inevitable result is a mass exodus of both capital and top-tier talent.

> I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment.

It’s the best investment - just bribe your way to contracts

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#12

Post by NicuCalcea »

dist-epoch wrote: post #5

> but after Brockman had donated 25M to Trump’s PAC > In capitalism, the market decides. > In oligarchy, connections and donations decide. Author is confused about what Capitalism is. It worked exactly as expected, Capital used itself to advance it's own needs - maximizing (own) growth. Capitalism is not about markets, it's about Capital. There is a reason why lobbying is an accepted practice in one of the most Capit…

> generally forbidden in Socialist EU

This is one of those cases where you wish your critics were right. One in 40 people in Brussels is a lobbyist, but apparently it's forbidden.

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#13

Post by jfengel »

mentalgear wrote: post #3

PS: If openly bribing a crony gov to cancel your competitor is now the de-facto standard of making business in the US, I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment. When the rule of law degrades into pay-to-play politics, the inevitable result is a mass exodus of both capital and top-tier talent.

It's bizarre seeing the outright bribery.

A lot of things that people call "bribery" is really just ensuring that your preferred candidate gets in office. You couldn't give money directly to the candidate for personal use. Donations went to the campaign of the guy who already agreed with you. The FEC used to take a dim view of outright pay-for-service, even dressed up.

This is new. And now people need to decide how they feel about that. They get one chance to say "no, that's not how we do things." Even if the administration suffers a blow this November, if they hear that this is mostly acceptable to their base, it will be what every politician does from here on.

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#14

Post by CamperBob2 »

mentalgear wrote: post #3

PS: If openly bribing a crony gov to cancel your competitor is now the de-facto standard of making business in the US, I don't see how any rational investor could still see US companies as a secure investment. When the rule of law degrades into pay-to-play politics, the inevitable result is a mass exodus of both capital and top-tier talent.

the inevitable result is a mass exodus of both capital and top-tier talent

To where?

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#15

Post by afthonos »

pton_xd wrote: post #7

This https://x.com/UnderSecretaryF/status/2027594072811098230 is the simplest and most logical explanation as to what happened. The disagreement was over who would be the arbiter of "lawful usage" of the technology, the US government or Amodei.

No, that’s not accurate at all, and in case you are genuinely confused:

1. Anthropic should be free to sell its services under whatever legal terms and conditions it wants.

2. The Pentagon should be free to buy those services, negotiate for different terms, refuse to buy those services, and terminate contracts subject to any termination clauses.

You may or may not agree with what the Pentagon wants to do, but if things had stayed there, there would be no real issue.

The problem is that the Pentagon is trying to bury Anthropic as a company, calling it a danger to the United States because it exerted its non-controversial right in (1).

Any “explanation” that doesn’t address that is confused itself or trying to confuse the issue.

I leave it to you as to which category the linked source falls under.

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#16

Post by jeremyjh »

pton_xd wrote: post #7

This https://x.com/UnderSecretaryF/status/2027594072811098230 is the simplest and most logical explanation as to what happened. The disagreement was over who would be the arbiter of "lawful usage" of the technology, the US government or Amodei.

Do you actually believe things this administration says? Is there some kind of drug that makes this possible?

Re: The whole thing was a scam

#18

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

"Is transitioning to oligarchy"? Really? I don't see how present continuous is justified here.

It has always been an old boys club where connections and hand greasing decided it all. President Trump is the product of this system, not its creator or builder.

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