Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Thanks, Ralph 470
Via RT: Uber hired "ex" CIA agents to steal trade secrets and code from competitors.
The good part, the automatic justice part, is that Kalanick used all these Mafia-style tactics for no gain.
(1) The business of car-hire can't involve "trade secrets". It's not like the formula for Coke or the synthesis procedure for a gene-based drug. If a competitor is doing something worth copying (such as paying its drivers) you can see it in action. Kalanick wouldn't have copied those "secrets" anyway, because those are positive productive non-criminal activities.
(2) Same with programming. It would have been cheaper to hire good programmers than to steal programs from competitors. Again Kalanick was physically incapable of doing things the normal productive non-criminal way.
Kalanick missed the main point of Mafia operations.
Real Mafias focus their efforts on high-profit services and products.
Because prohibition raises prices, Mafias usually ... NOT always ... operate in illegal areas. Real Mafias often turn partly or entirely legit when they find high-profit businesses that don't incur the risk of arrest.
Kalanick used the METHODS of Mafias to take over a business with minimal profits. So far Uber hasn't shown any profits at all.
Except for the sequence, it's a classic Underpants Gnome misunderstanding.
Real Mafia:
1. Take over a business that is profitable because it's illegal.
2. Operate the business illegally (because the business itself is illegal.)
3. Profit.
Uberpants Gnome:
1. ???
2. Operate the business illegally.
3. Profit.
= = = = =
Thanks, Ralph.
Labels: Emersonian justice
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