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Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

david.newgas.net

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Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#301

Post by pwagland »

bawolff wrote: post #120
talon8635 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay… do you not feel culpable at some point? Do you feel no obligation to expose these various individuals fleecing the tax payers? Your boss, the academics, and everyone else who participated or knows and remains silent. Obviously, you are now in the later group. Yes I know it’s not all that rare, BECAUSE people can’t be bothered to blow the whistle.

Do people really have a duty to fix every wrong in the world? He reported it to the project head, and resigned. He ensured he wasn't a part of the situation. I don't think you have to be a full saint to fulfil your moral obligations. He ensured he wasn't implicitly participating and reported it to someone who had a responsibility to investigate/do something about it. That is a reasonable amount of effort to rectify t…

They didn't blow the whistle though, not really.

Especially not when gp said that they expected the department head to brush it under the rug. If reporting things "up the chain of command" was really expected to root corruption out, and this fraud is 100% a form of corruption, then whistle blowing simply wouldn't be needed.

They covered their own ass, which is fine, in that later the head can't say they didn't know about it. But they didn't blow the whistle.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#302

Post by devilbunny »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #283
pyuser583 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem arises when moving someone from payroll to consulting creates the illusion they are not necessary.

That's not Accounting's problem. This is one of the many situations where counting beans creates idiocies, because GAAP has no concept of context , and management can play games to make the numbers look good while destroying real value. That's Level 1 of the problem. Level 2 is conscious fraud, either of investors or by investors. There are always startups that look suspiciously like their only purpose is to extract…

> capitalism is inherently corrupt

People are inherently corrupt. That's just life. The Soviet Union was corrupt as hell.

If you want to put down capitalism, feel free, but don't blame it for something that isn't unique to it.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#303

Post by kingleopold »

nekusar wrote: post #298
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People want more government control, but when governments take more control the press tells the people that it's bad and the people acquiesce. In local forums, so often you see (paraphrasing a pattern) "why are the government interfering with landlords, they should stop so many barbers opening instead". That is, why are the gov interfering in property markets, instead they should interfere in property markets AND pla…

Properly planning the economy, ala the Chinese tier system, is a good thing. They have 3 tiers. Its called 新基建 - *Xīn Jījiàn Top tier is for essentials like food, electricity, internet/comms, water, sewer. Heavily controlled, usually state owned companies. Middle tier is stuff that's integrated into essential tier. Lower tier is forefront of tech, and not at all critical for life. And a reminder that even fucks like…

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Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#304

Post by [deleted] »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #293
franze wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like Europe....

People want more government control, but when governments take more control the press tells the people that it's bad and the people acquiesce. In local forums, so often you see (paraphrasing a pattern) "why are the government interfering with landlords, they should stop so many barbers opening instead". That is, why are the gov interfering in property markets, instead they should interfere in property markets AND pla…

[deleted]

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#305

Post by wavemode »

patkai wrote: post #212
danans wrote: post #201

What's the old saying? "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime." Most common people throughout history made their living working in the systems owned by aristocrats whose wealth was usually built on both corruption and theft. Guess that hasn't changed much.

Behind many, but I sincerely hope not "every". A trivial counterexample is Warren Buffet: he simply saved and invested. Or consider inventors with patents.

Might as well save your breath. You're not going to convince HackerNews commenters that there is any human being on Earth with net worth over a certain threshold who is not evil. It's just too comfortable of a worldview for people to let go of.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#306

Post by MyHonestOpinon »

annzabelle wrote: post #108
selcuka wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even with the best documentation people will build up knowledge that no one has I think that's the part management teams are missing. They assume that employees are just human resources and they can replace a senior engineer with a 100% equivalent one when needed.

I worked for a large US bank that has a 10% biannual attrition target at all levels across the company. Twice a year they PIP 10-15% of staff, most of whom take a substantial buyout. Institutional knowledge is constantly being lost and experienced staff are being replaced with fresh cohorts of new grads, who then get replaced themselves right as they start becoming useful. I knew multiple people there who made more i…

Oh, I think I know who is this. The CEO is fantastic (he is very technology oriented) but he is super convinced this is the right way. It has all kinds of perverse consequences. The constant loss of experience shows everywhere. Cliques are formed as means of protection. People focus on being seen, rather than in doing a great job, etc.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#307

Post by elzbardico »

franze wrote: post #275
RandyRanderson wrote: post #272

In Canada this is a huge scam. The government advertizes that it's funding incubators. Great, right? The money doesn't go to the start ups - it all goes to large tech companies like IBM, etc, because, obviously, IBM knows about innovation. The cover is that the government doesn't know tech so it will give money to trusted partners and they will choose who to give the money to because they've been doing such a great j…

Sounds like Europe....

Sounds like Brazil...

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#308

Post by elzbardico »

jfengel wrote: post #110
shoo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when i worked for an australian bank, one co-worker in a nearby team had been working on the the banks systems as a sysadmin for over a decade. the bank would go through cycles of "we need to reduce our headcount and outsource everything" and then 4 years later "we need to reduce spend on contractors and retain more knowledge and expertise in house". he'd survived multiple waves of it, switching back and forth betwee…

Managers love the idea that contractors can be fired more easily than employees. Except that this flexibility comes at a cost; people insist on being paid more to have an insecure job. The uncertainty never goes away. You can pay someone else to suffer it, but it will always cost more than dealing with it yourself. And that can be ok. Just don't fool yourself into thinking you're getting a bargain.

The cynical me believes that there's not way kickbacks are not involved. A lot of times a third company acts as an intermediate on hiring those contractors, and their fees and markup easily make the same worker costs sometimes 2x their original salary.

The usual excuse for that is that labor is classified as OPEX, while hiring consulting companies can be classified as CAPEX, and the stock market likes when companies lower their labor costs to "invest" more.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#309

Post by nekusar »

kingleopold wrote: post #303
nekusar wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly planning the economy, ala the Chinese tier system, is a good thing. They have 3 tiers. Its called 新基建 - *Xīn Jījiàn Top tier is for essentials like food, electricity, internet/comms, water, sewer. Heavily controlled, usually state owned companies. Middle tier is stuff that's integrated into essential tier. Lower tier is forefront of tech, and not at all critical for life. And a reminder that even fucks like…

[flagged]

And in my experience, the capitalists are SUPER OBSESSED with tallying exact numbers of dead by Communist countries.

Of course in the USA, "Nobody dies due to capitalism!" It's always a 'personal decision'.

Medicines gatekept? Talk to a doctor (state-controlled monopoly)

Go to the doctor? Cant afford it? Go die! :)

Have a nasty disease that will kill you, but pills purge it? $80k please. And insurance wont pay. Hope you can afford it. Solvaldi says hi.

Cant afford housing? There's an underpass or park for that!

Oh you're homeless now? Well, we criminalized that.

OH, so you're in jail? Enjoy substandard living conditions, lack of effective medical, poor food, and slavery. And die in prison? Not a life sentence? Fuck you, you deserved to anyways!

Groceries gouging on food (like meat or eggs or whatever)? Thats a capitalism correction.

Industry polluting your area and causing life expectancy to drop and massive reproductive harm? SHoulda chose a better neighborhood.

Even with Solvaldi, a hepatitis cure costs $84k. But it costs $300 to synthesize at home. And over 6 million people have needlessly died because the cure was capitalistically priced above their legal means. But they will all be labeled as "poor life choices", and not the correct capitalist death. https://kolektiva.media/w/uvD1wWTRoh7HEto8zeSswr - Four Thieves Vinegar Collective video in synthesizing your own pharmaceuticals to bypass capitalist deaths.

The key to capitalism is the magic word "externality". If it's external to what you're doing, you can make others suffer and die and keep your hands clean. And all of this then get shoved on the individual for "Poor Life Choices". In reality, these too are capitalist deaths, but you will *NEVER* see them marked as such.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#310

Post by davsti4 »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #287
shoo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when i worked for an australian bank, one co-worker in a nearby team had been working on the the banks systems as a sysadmin for over a decade. the bank would go through cycles of "we need to reduce our headcount and outsource everything" and then 4 years later "we need to reduce spend on contractors and retain more knowledge and expertise in house". he'd survived multiple waves of it, switching back and forth betwee…

I know a large public sector organisation that had two extremely experience engineers take an early retirement package because there was a big restructure and they were getting 20 grand under private market rates. Six months later, they're hired back in for a year at 20 grand *over* market as contractors. And they wonder why they're pissing out money like a drunk in a bus stop.

Did that include the ~40% of employee overhead?
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