Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/18/llcs-inside-llcs.html
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That’s not really compatible with how a democracy is supposed to work.
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I am all emptied out, when it comes to snarky replies to these absurdities.
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The ironic part is that Google’s own business model shows how futile it is to hide data. So really, their game isn’t to keep this hidden forever, just to keep it hidden long enough.
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Don’t be evil? 
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That was always just a catchphrase.
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Don’t be obviously evil? 
Yeah, really no surprise that Stallman was right about selling our selves (and our societies) to silicon valley for convinience isn’t that great of an idea.
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And i want to tell everyone to listen to RMS, but he makes such an effort to appear unhinged 
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Very true!
One part of me sort of likes that he is as uncompromising as he is and there is nothing wrong in what he says or what he writes, but he is not someone you can point to when you are trying to convince your friend/mother/coworker to why free software is a great idea. Purism computers are actually better at this.
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So, money = power?
Gotcha.
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On the other hand, if a multi-billion dollar company was openly trying to set up a data center, wouldn’t everyone involved jack up the prices as high as possible, even if the data center ultimately wasn’t consuming more resources than a comparable operation?
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Do no evil.
But if you do do some evil, make sure it’s wrapped in several LLCs, shell corps, and NDAs about the NDAs.
Afterall, if some evil happens and no one can with any ethical guidelines is there witness it, is it really evil?
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So, “Outsource evil”?
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Partially. So, since it seems impossible for either side to deal fairly with the other, I must say that I, petsinally, would rather see the multi-national company with billions of dollars in annual profits forced to pay “inflated prices” for land, water, electricity, etc than a community.
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Ive always thought it weird that two natural born human beings wanting to start a family, get all kinds of constraints and caveats and pushback from the state. But creating a Legal Entity for shady purposes, here’s you rubber stamp.
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i can’t get how ndas are legal, let alone ndas which override public disclosure laws. i get that companies are evil, but why does the law say okay sure? ( and lobbying doesn’t cut it here. i’m presuming these contracts aren’t modern inventions? )
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a ten-year tax-holiday from the city in exchange for creating a mere 40 jobs
And this is just typical for these kinds of deals. Nothing is gained by the community. I don’t know how city officials justify it - assuming bribes don’t take place (which… is perhaps a bit of an assumption). How much is just incompetent local officials who have bought into the propaganda that giving up tax revenue (and water and…) for a tiny number of jobs is good, but don’t actually think about it?
What’s amazing is how they’re willing to abandon democracy (and tax revenue) for so little gain.
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So…sounds like Google is engaged in typical large-corporation tactics, yes?
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Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t it part of human nature (and essential in regards of corporations) to take advantage for something that can be done, as morally questionable as this one is?
Loosely translates to the NSFW saying: “Why does the dog lick his ba$%*? Because he can …”
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Do they, now?
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This isn’t a Google problem. This isn’t a tech problem. This it an unfettered-capitalism + politics problem. We saw the same with the robber barons early last century. I guarantee you that other sectors do the same. Getting mad at Google over this won’t solve the problem. We need to get mad about and change the culture of apathy that let this become business as usual. Google is just one dead leaf on a tree that is rotting at the roots.
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