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Anyone else read all the way down and see the bit about "everything is securities fraud"? Great ongoing bit by Matt on another way attorneys in the US bilk the public.

I don't think that's bilking at all. In the US we generally favor private enforcement over public regulation. E.g., the SEC doesn't go after every small bit of fraud and dubious corporate behavior. They're the big guns, and the small stuff is dealt with via private lawsuit from investors who think they've been harmed.

If we got rid of both private and public enforcement, fraud costs would balloon massively, costing the public wildly more. First for retail investors they were ever more often the suckers in the fraud, and then for everybody as we lose the robust public markets that are a major driver of business investment.

Somebody's got to keep the greedy, amoral people in line. I'm not sure doing it via predatory lawyers is more efficient than skilled bureaucrats, but it's definitely more in line with the free market principles that tend to win out in the US.


I agree with private enforcement via the courts, but I disagree with securities fraud which is just highway robbery of the public and investors to enrich lawyers.

I support your approach here Matt. I have used WordPress forever and greatly appreciate the software.

I guess you don't host it or program for it...

I run a digital agency with hundreds of employees and thousands of clients and tens of thousands of WordPress sites we host.

While I don't deny CMSs has been a big part of my money income for decades, and CMS are a great entry both for designers, developers and business, Wordpress is probably the most horrible one. His popularity IMHO is just a matter of timing and good usability (which I won't deny), but not is not backed by a good code design and implementation behind.

Drupal or even PHP Nuke was much better designed. I.e: Wp calls every published object post as it was designed as blog for posting.

Almost all CMS provide class oriented architecture, object caching, multilanguage, clean separation between base code, customer code and customer data, safe defaults (like all forms for commenting enabled),...


We have the exact same problem here on HN...

Please please please banish the patent system already. It is solely used by corrupt lawyers to persecute and rob successful entrepreneurs.

This is a very bad take.

Patents most important goal is to protect entrepreneurs and the resources they spend in R&D and to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

Imagine spending millions on developing, say, a new method to produce something at 1/10th a cost.

Now imagine a world without patents, where competitors can just copy your process.

Who's gonna invest and innovate?

Apply that to everything from batteries to telecom from anything healthcare to car engines, etc.

Without patents we would not have the same technological evolution.


Even with a patent it's not that easy to stop someone from copying your invention. They can just change it a little bit and tada, now it's not a violation. Or a company in China can clone everything about your invention, right down to the marketing copy and aspects of the branding. Then they can buy placement on amazon.com to steal your market and drink your milkshake essentially zero consequences.

Ideas are worthless, execution is everything. Famous mantra on old school HN, and the same philosophy held by some of the most famous inventors in history such as Ford, Edison, Musk, etc.

I still don't get how he multiplied $70k to $264m... And this reporter seems to just take all of Weschler's claims at face value... BUT Warren Buffett is famous for great due diligence and high levels of ethics... So I guess it probably is legit?

Unions in the US make for very high costs and long production schedules.

X.com is the only reliable source of news now as people from all political views do independent reporting there and Community Notes fact checks them.

I was never much of a Twitter user, but I have a really hard time believing that any social network incentivizing short comments and social validation through likes/shares and an algorithmic feed will ever be a reliable source for unbiased views.

That site is, and always has been, full of hot takes and sensationalism which are often out-of-context or misleading. Regardless of viewpoint. And most evidence shows it is a top target for intentional disinformation attacks by institutionally-sponsored troll farms. It is very easy for people to end way down the rabbit holes of an echo chamber on that site and find themselves exposed to niche accounts that don't receive any fact checking or counterarguments.

CNN became unreliable and started turning out propaganda years ago. Monetizing it is just the next step.

The problem with remote work is lack of accountability. Every worker bee buzzes that "just let me finish my work and be on my way", but that's just not how business works. Employers require either bossware to watch employees at home or they will watch them physically in the workplace. Take your pick.

Patents everywhere are weird and suck hard. They stifle innovation and growth. Human knowledge has evolved and grown on the back of other human knowledge forever.

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