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Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

So basically all investment banking divisions should be treated with the same regard?

I find it strange that we seem to give finance a pass when they've engaged in this sort of behavior for decades.

We shouldn't give them a pass either. That's a non sequitur.

Do we actually give the finance industry a pass? The fact that "Wall st" is a pejorative these days is some indication that's not the case.

The fact that there are never any real consequences to Wall St actually tends to prove the opposite.

Wall St has deeply and thoroughly captured all of the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing it, as well as most of the powerful organs of government, and thus sits comfortably above the law.

But not above the ire of the media. The media is just as money-corruptible as every other business enterprise and it found a shiny new toy to play with with Uber. There are likely orders of magnitude more workplace culture issues in finance, yet the media has largely moved past lambasting financial firms for that because it doesn't earn them enough eyeballs. Uber is only getting more attention for something many many many businesses are guilty of (and to a far greater degree) because no other company is as lucrative to write about.

Yeah, we definitely give finance a pass. We say "huh, well, bankers will be bankers, can't expect folks to behave around that much money", put in place some ineffectual "controls" and start the whole cycle again.

Whataboutism. The stronger argument is "So basically the White House should be treated with the same regard?" but the answer is still "We shouldn't give them a pass either. That's a non sequitur."

Maybe bankers get a pass. What does that have to do with this situation? It's an insidious line of argument.

The culture in finance is a lot more professional (and less sexist) than what was going on in Uber.

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