Comment by staticman2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by staticman2 | Hacker News Reader

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First, let's explore your claim breaking the law is not dishonest. If a billionaire like Bill Gates is stuffed in a violin case and the airport officials asks me how many people will be on my flight and I don't include Bill Gates on the flight itinerary am I not being dishonest?

Second, your claim is if Bill Gates has me on retainer to break him out of jail and I don't break him out of jail I go to jail?

This is a surprising claim. You think Bill Gates goes around putting criminal activities in writing if the goal is to avoid going to jail?

You also seem to think Bill Gates wants to admit to the prosecutor that he illegally hired me to commit a crime, a seperate crime with additional jail time for Bill Gates in the hopes the prosecutor will go after me for revenge? If his goal is to stay out of jail he's going to switch goals to spending more time in jail to get back at me?

And the prosecutor is going to with a straight face announce to the world he's pressing charges on me for promising to break Bill Gates out of jail but not breaking Bill Gates out of jail? This is something you think is likely to happen?

One might almost think if Bill Gates wants to avoid jail the better strategy is hiring honest, law abiding people, avoid breaking the law, and avoid traveling to countries where you think the justice system is corrupt.

If breaking the law is dishonest because there are dishonest ways you can break the law, then speaking is dishonest because you can speak in ways where you tell a lie.

This breaks down because merely speaking is not sufficient to show someone is lying, just as breaking the law is not sufficient to show someone is dishonest. For instance, I can speak without dishonesty by telling the whole truth and you can break the law without dishonesty (say someone finds a pot seed on their property, and plants it -- illegal but not dishonest).

>Second, your claim is if Bill Gates has me on retainer to break him out of jail and I don't break him out of jail I go to jail?

Absolutely. It's conspiracy and this is a pretty well understood legal concept. The agreement to do the deed is the spoken part of the conspiracy and the physical taking of the money for it is the overt act needed to convict you.

note: this is for entertainment and not legal advice. I am not an attorney.

Do you remember the topic of discussion or are you typing replies in a vacuum?

You just argued everyone who commits a crime of conspiracy goes to jail while simultaneously arguing Bill Gates can commit a crime of conspiracy and avoid going to jail through the power of conspiracy.

Apparently everyone goes to jail for conspiracy but simultaneously Bill Gates can have people on retainers for years as part of a conspiracy and stay out of jail.

It just feels like you are typing replies for the sake of typing replies?

Also, crimes of dishonesty are dishonest, and pretending otherwise because you can imagine crimes which aren't dishonest isn't particularly convincing.

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