[jrs235]

Ah, the great corrupt state of Illinois!

I wonder who and how much money got passed under the table to investigate and pursue this.

Yes, I realize that no money may have been passed and that someone might have just been doing "their job" (as they see it).

[rayiner]

I don't even understand the motivations behind posts like this. Government = bad and tech company = good, so therefore any time there is an issue between them, it can only be the result of government corruption squashing innovation? Is that basically the gist of it? If it had been the state of Illinois versus say Apple, would you say the same thing?

Square is part of the financial services sector. It's regulated, and always has been, for good reasons. There is no need to turn the imposition of reasonable licensing requirements into a anti-government rant.

What boggles my mind is that many of the same people who go off on things like this also think the government doesn't do enough to regulate oil companies, banks, etc. Guess what--people who work in those industries think they're the "good guys" too, and tirade against the government for imposing regulations to keep them "innovating." "We shouldn't regulate tech companies, it just hinders innovation, the government doesn't understand the space anyway" is pretty much precisely parallel to the thinking that got us deregulation in financial services.

[jrs235]

It's more of a jab at Illinois (that state seems to have more than its fair share of known corruption issues) than government in general. "If it had been the state of Illinois versus say Apple, would you say the same thing?" Yes.

Some Government regulations are in fact reasonable, even a libertarian such as myself can concede that.

Someone else pointed out that Square doesn't really hold funds, they transfer them. (I haven't verified this statement.) Even if this is true... they still have access to a lot of people's funds and could very easily steal them.

Your other points are also spot on.

UPDATE: I was a little surprised myself that the net karma score for the parent comment was positive.

UPDATE 2: "I don't even understand the motivations behind posts like this." To be a little snarky I guess and to raise eyebrows and questions. At face value, little value is added by the comment... until someone replied and added to the discussion.

[bcoates]

They've got this thing and it's fucking golden. They're not just giving it up for fucking nothing.

[jrs235]

I'm a bit confused. What exactly are you talking about and referring to?

[super-serial]

It's how our politicians do business here in Illinois...

http://www.salon.com/2008/12/09/blagojevich_complaint/