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Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by TeMPOraL on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:52AM (#28562482)
In other words, for companies, the law is a continuous function, where for individuals it's a discrete one. Where you and me have to ask ourselves, "do I break the law or not?", big companies ask themselves, "what is the optimal level of law breakage?".
Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by snowwrestler on Friday September 17, 2021 @07:12AM (#28563943)
I think it’s continuous for people too. Do we ever drive faster than the speed limit? Cross a street outside of a defined crosswalk? Do we voluntarily report all our out-of-state purchases on state taxes? If we sell something on Craigslist, do we always report that as income?

I think a lot of people also have an optimal level of law breakage.

Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by hellotomyrars on Saturday September 18, 2021 @01:55AM (#28574036)
I agree there is a spectrum of compliance for your average person with the letter of the law and the reality of everyday life (and the meaningful consequence of breaking them). Jaywalking is very unlikely to have any meaningful impact to anyone, and mostly unlikely to be enforced.

But the big thing that separates your everyday person and companies is that corporations will gladly and willfully break the law, even in cases where they weigh the risk (perhaps they have a legal argument about how it’s not actually breaking the law, but it’s probably paper thin) because it can often be more profitable to commit the crime. and pay whatever fine is imposed than not commit the crime in the first place. It is incredibly rare for anyone to go to jail or be prosecuted individually for corporate crimes, and so the risk to any particular individual is exceedingly low.

I can’t really think of any reasonable example where I could commit a crime as an individual and come out the other side with a net positive, despite being caught/prosecuted.

Corporations aren’t playing with the same deck, and their bad behavior is constantly rewarded. Sure, they can sometimes go over the line and tank the entire operation but that is far and away the exception instead of the rule.

Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by sokoloff on Friday September 17, 2021 @07:19AM (#28564025)
Selling some personal property at a loss (as is typical) is not income. The other examples are good ones.
Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by snowwrestler on Friday September 17, 2021 @01:54PM (#28568688)
People make money on Craigslist, selling services for example.
Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by tempestn on Friday September 17, 2021 @04:17AM (#28562655)
I'd argue it's not even quite that. Common law is not perfectly defined. So there aren't really levels of 'law breakage', but rather something more like, "what's the likelihood the potential legal costs of this outweigh the benefit?"
Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by jacquesm on Friday September 17, 2021 @06:52AM (#28563769)
For some individuals it isn't even that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28543096

Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by jacobr1 on Friday September 17, 2021 @11:14AM (#28566409)
Also there are plenty of gray legal areas. Often the questions are, "Is this really breaking the law? What is the risk?"

And even in cases where the managed 100% wants fully comply with existing law, there are still tradeoffs. How much do we fund internal enforcement and will that prevent us from being competitive? Which isn't so much about actively trying to break the law, but willing to risk that breakage will happen, or even naive trust of employees.

Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f... by andrewingram on Friday September 17, 2021 @06:52AM (#28563770)
Or at least, which laws will someone go to jail for breaking vs us just getting slapped with a fine?