Why George Lucas, Eric Schmidt, (and yes, Steve Jobs) Should Go to Jail: Conspiring to Reduce Wages

[BelgianMadCow]

Why George Lucas, Eric Schmidt, (and yes, Steve Jobs) Should Go to Jail: Conspiring to Reduce Wages of 100,000 Tech Pros

One big difference between West Coast and East Coast oligarchs is that a lot fewer people lionize the Eastern ones. Even though the media and sadly too many regulators treat the likes of Lloyd Blankfein with far too much deference, the broader public has wised up. Even MBAs, who normally side with the rich and powerful, have asked me, “When is Jamie Dimon going to jail?”

But Silicon Valley’s royalty occupy a class of their own, the toast of TED talks and the model for aspiring entrepreneurs the world over. And the admiration is particularly strong among the rank and file workers in the San Francisco area. So it’s more than a bit ironic to see that these titans of technology engaged in a formal arrangement to suppress pay to the tune of $9 billion across Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and Pixar.

Here you thought it was only those poor Foxconn workers making iPhones in China who were being exploited. Silly you.

More at Naked Capitalism. Yet another criminal conspiracy in the vein of LIBOR rigging.

[justiceischeap]

1. Point out the obvious... Steve Jobs is dead. nt

[BelgianMadCow]

2. Yep. Dunno what Yves Smith was thinking there

or smoking

Just highlighting his role. No detail of course, given the elevation of Jobs to some kind of saint.

[demwing]

3. but...but..JAIL!!

Who cares about such trivialities when there's a perfectly good outrage going down?

[justiceischeap]

5. I guess they could dig up his body

and throw it in a cell.

[Incitatus]

24. Sounds good as long as they all share the same cell. nt

[merrily]

10. Sometimes, outrage is the only rational reaction. Or do you disagree with the D of J

on this?

[demwing]

12. Does this REALLY warrant jail time?

It's a non-violent crime. Must we imprison everyone?

Even dead guys?

[Demeter]

17. It is the dispassionate criminal, operating for financial gain, that is the worst evil

Calculated evil, so to speak. A crime against the People, not just one particular person.

[demwing]

18. You've convinced me

Wage fixing is the greatest evil....much worse than rape or murder.

[Demeter]

20. So, You can empathize with an individual victim, but not a victimized class

Even when that class is your own, and it affects generations...your descendents for several decades?

Call yourself a Democrat?

[demwing]

23. Let me make this simple for you

Not all crimes are equal.
Not all crimes require prison sentences.
Empathy does not require a hyperbolic response.

Do you always attribute false, negative positions to others in order to congratulate yourself on your self-perceived superiority?

[Demeter]

32. Let me make this even simpler

Do you belong to the 99%, or the 1%?

If you don't think the 1% deserve jail time for their crimes, what alternative deterrence would you recommend?

[demwing]

33. I see it's time for another of your strawmen...

I never said that I "don't think the 1% deserve jail time for their crimes." You don't seem to be able to avoid judging others based on what you pretend they have said. Shame...

Again, not all crimes are equal. Wage fixing in Silicon Valley is not my idea of a human rights violation. Some crimes of the 1% may well deserve jail time. Forcing your employees to work in unsafe conditions, especially when doing so results in injury or death, is an example. In the case discussed in the OP, I think asset seizure is more appropriate, such as is done with the drug dealers or other criminal enterprises. Dedicate the proceeds to the affected employees. Solve the problem, if possible.

Jail time doesn't pay a day, or even an hour of back wages.

[brooklynite]

50. Well. my wife and I are part of the 1%...how much time do I need to serve?

We both work hard, we don't oppress the working class in our jobs and we're paid a lot of money.....which we give to Democrat candidates who promise to raise our taxes.

[El_Johns]

35. Wage-fixing is theft on a massive scale. Not to mention collusion, conspiracy & fraud.

It's you who doesn't get it.

[demwing]

37. yeah yeah massive scale, I get it

But I clearly don't agree with either of you, and have explained what I believe to be s better alternative and why.

What exactly are you looking for?

[El_Johns]

38. I'm looking for big gangsters to be prosecuted more harshly than little gangsters.

[demwing]

39. Sweet, me too

We agree on the "what," just not on the "how"

[El_Johns]

40. Little gangsters get both prison time & asset seizure. With little to no recourse.

Even their little grandmothers get their houses taken if the pot dealer happened to be staying there.

But you think the theft of 9 billion dollars doesn't deserve jail time.

[demwing]

46. You act like complete asset seizure is just an inconvenience

Show me a person who can handle a 9 billion dollar seizure and I'll show you a person who can handle prison time as if it were just a necessary cost of doing business.

Wow! You're so damned tough because you demand prison time! You have OUTRAGE! lol!

You're not even trying to make the case for deterrence - you're solely arguing for corporal punishment through incarceration.

You haven't even established that prison time would be the worst punishment. In fact, turning these characters into inmates just means that they are once again living at everyone else's expense.

Save prisons for the violent. Non-violent criminals don't belong in prison. Little ones or big. Take every damned thing they have and send them back in to the world. We lock up too many people as it is, more than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

How can we do that and still pretend we live in the land of the free?

[RC]

27. Do something far worse than jail.

Strip them of their wealth. Pay their minions the back pay they should have gotten all along.

[demwing]

29. EXACTLY /nt

[Fumesucker]

4. Here's why Jobs was mentioned

The government’s case, as summarized by Mark Ames at Pando, is chock full of damning e-mails among top executives, which reveal Steve Jobs to have been the lead actor and main enforcer of the pay-containment pact, which dates to 2005. But its real mastermind was George Lucas, who had a similar scheme in place in the 1980s and enlisted Jobs when he sold the computer animation division of Lucasfilm to Pixar.

[justiceischeap]

7. I get why he was mentioned but the title of the piece

begs to be made fun of. One could argue that Jobs got his in the end.

[Fumesucker]

8. Jobs got what we all get

[merrily]

11. I thought that wording the headline as it is worded and using parentheses

indicates that the headline writer is aware that Jobs is both (a) dead and (b) still hero worshipped by many.

Of course, I did find the headline hilarious anyway. No one, alive or dead, is going to do time for this, no matter how much they should.

[AZ Progressive]

44. So many people you think were so good turn out not to be

Which is why it's wise never to blindly follow anyone, and to have at least a small amount of cynicism to keep one guarded.

[Demeter]

43. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

Julius Caesar: Act 3 Scene 2

William Shakespeare

Not that anyone's accused Jobs of doing good...

[pipoman]

6. gonna need a shovel. .

[merrily]

9. K&R

[TBF]

13. This is what capitalists do. nt

[Demeter]

21. This is what FASCISTS do.

Enslave the workers, cheat them of their wages, rig the game.

[nikto]

14. So, it turns out George Lucas's creation of Darth Vader ...

Was AUTIOBIOGRAPHICAL.

[reddread]

22. creation? He STOLE that and a lot more

from the Source, Jack Kirby.
Much as I like his work, its pretty clear he wont be shamed.

[FSogol]

25. Stolen? Don't you mean influenced by?

[villager]

28. Darth Vader is Darkseid?

Hmmm...

[reddread]

34. almost as much as he is Dr Doom

http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/2010/12/18/kirby-lucas-and-campbell/


http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2008/10/will-gods-return-someday-by-jack-kirby.html

appears Kirby's creativity may have been worth upwards of a trillion dollars.
and they screwed him good for it.

[RedstDem]

15. Steve Jobs was a genius

but, being a genius does not make him a good person, actually he was a piece of shit, and can stay dead.

hoping the others follow him sooner rather than later.

[antigop]

16. Hey, there's a tech worker shortage, didn't you know that ?? (sarcasm) nt

[El_Johns]

42. It's all of a piece. And the net result has been to drive wages down. I think it's pretty much

industry wide:

In a related but separate investigation and ongoing suit, eBay and its former CEO Meg Whitman, now CEO of HP, are being sued by both the federal government and the state of California for arranging a similar, secret wage-theft agreement with Intuit (and possibly Google as well) during the same period.

http://pando.com/2014/01/23/the-techtopus-how-silicon-valleys-most-celebrated-ceos-conspired-to-drive-down-100000-tech-engineers-wages/

[NuclearDem]

19. Well, The Phantom Menace should at least merit a few months at Camp X-ray.

[Erose999]

26. Steve Jobs was anti-labor, union busting scum. Fuck anyone who lionizes that greedy bastard. May he

be forever associated with the human rights abuses at places like Foxconn.

[El_Johns]

36. +1. He's not unique in silicon valley though. Doubt any of those peeps are humanitarians

whatever their PR departments claim.

[former9thward]

45. Does your "fuck anyone" include Obama?

Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/05/president-obama-passing-steve-jobs-he-changed-way-each-us-sees-world

[Erose999]

47. Yes, it does. Obama is not really a friend of labor either, see also: TPP

[hfojvt]

30. not sure I mind what Google did

"Google’s “People Ops” department kept overall compensation essentially equitable by making sure that lower-paid employees who performed well got higher salary increases than higher-paid employees who also performed well."

That seems rather "pro equality".

I argued the same way when I was on a board. I noted that a 2% across the board salary increase meant that much of the money was going to the better paid employees. So I argued instead for a more equitable "fixed amount + 1% increase) but the rest of the board voted me down unanimously.

[hedgehog]

31. Anyone know what happened to this case? Is it ongoing or dead?

[El_Johns]

41. A jury trial date has been set for May 27 in San Jose,

http://pando.com/2014/01/23/the-techtopus-how-silicon-valleys-most-celebrated-ceos-conspired-to-drive-down-100000-tech-engineers-wages/


n a related but separate investigation and ongoing suit, eBay and its former CEO Meg Whitman, now CEO of HP, are being sued by both the federal government and the state of California for arranging a similar, secret wage-theft agreement with Intuit (and possibly Google as well) during the same period.

[REP]

49. That's a different case; three have settled in the other one and two have yet to do so.

[REP]

48. 3 have settled; 2 have not

[jollyreaper2112]

51. the thing that really irks me

These people clearly committed crimes and yet any talk of consequences will be met with tsk-tsks and talk of "let's be realistic." And they are right: these fuckers aren't going to jail. They can flout the law.

Shit, look at goddamn Tiger Woods. The police wanted to question him about running over a fire hydrant when tiffing with his then-wife. Mr. Woods, sir, we'd really like to ask questions. Think they'd be so deferential if he was Tiger Woods, Fry Cook? They'd be breaking down his apartment door, guns drawn. He'd be lucky if he wasn't shot dead on the spot for being black.