Re:The Rise of Airbnb's Full-Time Landlords
by TeMPOraL on Tuesday November 10, 2015 @11:11AM
(#10540136)
> If at any time the penalties are less than the cost of adhering to the terms of the contract, it's only rational to break the contract and pay the penalty.
The rules that are broken here aren't in the contract, they're about the contract. So if it's rational (in economical sense) for me to break a contract, then I should break it[0] and then pay the penalty. The problem with people subletting on AirBnB is that they don't show up at their landlord's doors immediately after the guest leaves, ready to pay the price. They just keep cheating the other side until they get caught.
In your employment example, it would be as if I worked remotely at the first job, then joined the second company and didn't tell my former employer - just logged hours for doing nothing, hoping he doesn't notice (maybe it's a big company).
[0] - that how it may work in Serious Business, but contracts between regular people are usually entered with an assumption that both sides want to follow them through; to break them on purpose based on cost-benefit calculation means one is an asshole.
The rules that are broken here aren't in the contract, they're about the contract. So if it's rational (in economical sense) for me to break a contract, then I should break it[0] and then pay the penalty. The problem with people subletting on AirBnB is that they don't show up at their landlord's doors immediately after the guest leaves, ready to pay the price. They just keep cheating the other side until they get caught.
In your employment example, it would be as if I worked remotely at the first job, then joined the second company and didn't tell my former employer - just logged hours for doing nothing, hoping he doesn't notice (maybe it's a big company).
[0] - that how it may work in Serious Business, but contracts between regular people are usually entered with an assumption that both sides want to follow them through; to break them on purpose based on cost-benefit calculation means one is an asshole.