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Why is this even illegal? Perks in the industry is normal. People are always trying to get their own businesses front and center for contracts. Some of these companies just don't have much to give out other than equity and what exactly is wrong about that?
Every time this story comes up, the comments are filled with people proclaiming that kickbacks like this are totally normal and very common. I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world, or if it's people who have been part of bribery/kickback schemes themselves trying to normalize the behavior online. Either way, cases like this should make it clear that the behavior…
It’s always a game of cat and mouse. Legalizing small time bribery where it can be done out in the open would probably be far more effective then advocating for things like increased workplace surveillance.
Thinking commerce can happen without corruption or kickbacks is just naive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Edit: Half-awake, math wrong, ignore me.
Am I reading your comment correctly? GP says that, over 30 months, the average American makes $125k. Given a $68k per year average that you provide, that's $170k after 30 months, which is even more than GP estimated. Even if the average were $40k/year, that's still $100k after 30 months.
Every time this story comes up, the comments are filled with people proclaiming that kickbacks like this are totally normal and very common. I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world, or if it's people who have been part of bribery/kickback schemes themselves trying to normalize the behavior online. Either way, cases like this should make it clear that the behavior…
The system isn't much good if infractions against its rules go unpunished. Faith in the system is being restored.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
or not trying to normalize but pointing out that its already normalized to the point that you can’t be an effective employee due to competition with people winning deal flow via kickbacks The actions in question occurred almost 10 years ago, how many people lost commissions and bonuses and promotions and jobs and relationships by trying to play fair? acknowledging this isn’t being an apologist for it or condoning it…
Yes, this is effectively a race to the bottom situation and is a form of corruption of the rule of law. In today's world, we tend to have a culture of "letting things slide" and all this does is gradually normalize and escalate breaking the law over a long period of time.
Maybe there are no wads of cash changing hands, but I've personally seen contracts being earned less due to the feature set, but more because the startup got introduced to some C level and them applying downward pressure to choose that startup during the vetting process.
It's kinda noticeable when you're on a call with a big company's tech team and they sound defeated when talking about the success criteria and stuff
Every time this story comes up, the comments are filled with people proclaiming that kickbacks like this are totally normal and very common. I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world, or if it's people who have been part of bribery/kickback schemes themselves trying to normalize the behavior online. Either way, cases like this should make it clear that the behavior…
It’s human nature to scratch each other’s backs. It’s happening, will continue to happen, and there’s little which can be done. It’s always a game of cat and mouse. Legalizing small time bribery where it can be done out in the open would probably be far more effective then advocating for things like increased workplace surveillance. Thinking commerce can happen without corruption or kickbacks is just naive.
https://ourworldindata.org/ethnographic-and-archaeological-e...
I love how it's totally legal for the governor of Florida to send lucrative drug testing contracts to his wife's owned company but a guy getting a few stock options from a client is illegal. I guess we'll just go back to big wads of cash in an envelope instead.
I had to look that up because I’m not familiar with the story, but it seems illegal in most other states. This Netflix case, by contrast, is federal. Still makes the Gov. actions seem sketchy
Every time this story comes up, the comments are filled with people proclaiming that kickbacks like this are totally normal and very common. I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world, or if it's people who have been part of bribery/kickback schemes themselves trying to normalize the behavior online. Either way, cases like this should make it clear that the behavior…
>I can't tell how much of it is random people projecting their cynicism onto the business world Is this on HN? Because I rarely sees it. Most people working in Tech and specifically software development are so abstracted from these type of things they think they are extremely rare. It is still a common thing though. At least it happens much more often than most people thought. And it is not cynicism but personal expe…
Try talking to a retired government worker for juicy stories some time (there are three generations of tech workers in my family, and all of us have done government work or contracting since the 1960s).
This is why government workers and contractors have to take so much anti-corruption training (I’ve never been subject to this in any purely private sector jobs).