[PragmaticPulp]

> "But we had to do <terrible thing> because it's the law" isn't an excuse

If the “terrible thing” you’re referring to is paying someone according to a contract signed then, yes, it’s an excuse for why they had to do it.

That’s literally how contracts work.

[danaris]

If you agreed to pay one person enough to do nothing that you have to lay off thousands of other people, I don't care if you signed a contract to do it—it's still worthy of condemnation.

All it changes is the timing of when the action worthy of condemnation occurred.

[j_walter]

$10M/yr = 50x $200K/yr

Not paying him and getting sued for it would save about 50 jobs temporarily. Not "thousands"...

[danaris]

Changes the semantics, but not the underlying ethics.