Do you really care about businessmen?

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HotSteak@reddit

Could you give an example?

I don't think I can even name any "businessmen" that aren't mega-billionaires or related to me.

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Suspicious-Peace9233@reddit

Exactly like Elon musk will be in the news not the local grocery store owner

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Which is funny because most everyone loves the family that owns our local grocery chain. I’d bet even money that folks would follow their comings and goings in a reality TV show even if it was just boring day to day grocery store stuff with an occasional vacation or a day going out hiking.

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LoiusLepic@reddit

Another question:

1) how common or is it common at all, for someone in the US justice system to have their charges dropped simply because the state doesn't have the resources to prosecute everyone? generally in Australia sometimes people get charges dropped as long as they haven't done something too crazy of course just because they don't have the resources to prosecute everyone.

2) as a follow on can you get a lighter sentence by pleading guilty? generally in Australia for the same reason of resources if you plead guilty you can get a lower sentence then you would if you plead not guilty and are convicted. There was a case of fraud financial crime where one guy plead guilty and the other not guilty ans the one who plead guilty got 6 months and the other 2 years because he plead not guilty and took more resources to prosecute him

(not related to a plea deal)

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

1) there were no criminal charges at all so that wasn’t an issue

2) again none of this is criminal

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LoiusLepic@reddit

Financial crime is criminal. And ive known people with light assault charges dropped.

And you didn't answer my question? Does this happen in usa?

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

What was the criminal charge?

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LoiusLepic@reddit

I domt know robbery i guess. My question still stands. Im pre sure if you stole 100k of a bank in America u get criminal charges

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

Yeah there’d be several potential criminal charges if you did that. What I’m saying is with this grocery store there was no criminality. It was just a corporate disagreement in civil court.

If there was actually fraud or theft then there may very well be criminal charges as well as a civil case.

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LoiusLepic@reddit

And as to my original question? If you plead guilty can you get a lighter sentence?

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

Yeah that is the entire point of a plea deal.

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BaseballNo916@reddit

Right. When I hear businessman I just think “normal white collar worker” unless it’s specified we’re talking about a CEO or something.

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Wii_wii_baget@reddit

Yeah nobody posts shit about businessmen unless they are influential in some way. Even they most people just wanna see how they can meme photos of people with power.

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UnicornPencils@reddit

Do you mean ultra rich men like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk?

Because people do pay attention to what people like that do, due to the level of influence their wealth gives them.

But the average business man? No, people don't really care at all. That term could be used for any random guy that works in something business related.

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Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit

I do think if it’s somebody who is a prominent business owner or CEO of a business in a small community, that if they are caught in a scandal or are found to be doing something that most people find to be morally repugnant, it does make more of an impact on the community than if it’s some random person with a nowhere job. I’ve actually seen it happen. I know a number of people who worked for the company and it was a BIG deal.

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FlappyClap@reddit

American television shows and films are works of fiction. Let your peers know.

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MackSeaMcgee@reddit

American's don't give a fuck about businessmen. They care about making money.

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Livvylove@reddit

I watched a French show where a thief based all his crimes off a series of books. Do all French thieves base their crimes on books?

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Loud_Insect_7119@reddit

I lived in a rural village in the UK for about 6 months in the early 2000s, and I'm so glad I didn't have such easy access to British media back then because man, there are so many shows about murders in quaint little towns. I never would have gone if I had realized it was so dangerous! Especially because the victims are often foreigners or other people are somehow not recurring characters in these tiny towns.

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SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

It’s not just the UK. The most rational explanation is that Jessica Fletcher was a very skilled serial killer. Made Dexter look like an amateur.

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Sleepygirl57@reddit

Yep. I watch them all on britbox!

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Lazy-Jacket@reddit

Yes! The Cotswolds have so many murders!

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shelwood46@reddit

Not just murders, every time the murderer murders someone they have to murder 2+ more people to cover up that murder, and often elaborately stage the scenes. Serial killers, the Cotswolds are filled with serial killers.

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UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit

I seriously need to know what the population of that village is because I feel like it should be zero by now.

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Abstrata@reddit

Wait I’m usually the person whose head a joke will sail right over. What’s going on rn? Is this bizarro world?

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geekteam6@reddit

This is a somewhat odd question because Taylor Swift is herself a highly successful and savvy businsss person.

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DavyDavisJr@reddit

In the vast majority of movies, the businessman is either the villain or does bad things. Maybe 1% of the movies is he the good guy. This propaganda, of course, is picked up by the general population.

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trey74@reddit

So, once again, TV isn't real life. It's TV.

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sdautist@reddit

Maybe we need to put this in the sub description.

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machuitzil@reddit

But they do seem to be alluding to a classist trope, with some nut of truth buried within the peachy flesh of the question.

Patrick Bateman was never held to account for anything, and Epstein was untouchable until he hung himself in his cell. Allegedly. Brock Turner.

Im making light of it, but we have seperate prisons for rich people ffs, let's not kid ourselves.

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kaimcdragonfist@reddit

As Dr. Cox said:

“This isn’t a tv show. There aren’t any cameras over here. Real medical mysteries don’t happen every week. And doctors damn sure don’t look like models, they look like Rex!”

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Stein1071@reddit

HA! I just binged the series (seasons 1-8, fuck the post wonder years season 9) last week.

Hooch is crazy....

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DeliciousTea6683@reddit

I’m gonna be so for real with you buddy I have no clue what you mean

businessman like your local banker?? or like a billionaire? and why are they buying a soccer club?

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shelwood46@reddit

I thought you couldn't use your hands, why woud you need a club?

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SkyerKayJay1958@reddit

Mad Men was a good show but the men were shitty humans

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MartinNeville1984@reddit

Television rarely depicts real life

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kaimcdragonfist@reddit

You mean there isn’t a giant wall of ice meant to keep a legion of frost zombies away from civilization? Gasp

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Ananvil@reddit

No, that one is real

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UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit

Exactly. Like what other explanation is there for the Great Wall of China?

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Abstrata@reddit

We’re a business focused, rugged individualism focused society.

“Big business” characters in our shows generally have an IRL famous character that a parallel can be drawn from. Succession’s patriarch Logan Roy is kind of based off of a fictional extreme of Rupert Murdoch, etc. And that show came about when the business of media was under scrutiny anyway.

Some of our big businessmen here are celebrities in their own right or are sports/music/movie/etc stars, or they were in the mob or gangs. And their lives are just noteworthy or outrageous.

Some get famous because they commit acts of crime (like the Murdaughs) or get killed in the US (like Gianni Versace).

Also we have a big focus on the ‘American Dream’ thing— The US “dream” was built on huge businessmen like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Astor, and the Astors especially got to decide who was high society and who was not— who was considered worthwhile, basically. Success meant self-worth, sadly.

Then there are surprising people who just made a great idea stick like Levi Strauss, or hugely influential rich people like Spielberg.

We have had dedicated media for following such people too, in “Fortune 500” —Warren Buffett and the Walton Family, and on to Steve Jobs, Bezos, etc.

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MuchDevelopment7084@reddit

Nope, it's just a tv show. Nothing about it is actually real.

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Akem0417@reddit

We elected one as President and the really successful ones are celebrities

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Illustrious-Okra-524@reddit

I do think you’re correct that American culture is suffused with this. Think of how sports trophies are handed to the team owner first. No other country is as obsessed with worshipping businessmen to do it that way.

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Automatic_Praline897@reddit

Lol

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Head-Major9768@reddit

They do the crime but not the time.

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Cowboywizard12@reddit

Can we get an example, like are we talking Batman where Bruce Wayne is the Businessman in question or something

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ghostwriter85@reddit

TV isn't real, but ....

Depends on the size of the business or the nature of the event.

Some of this comes down to American libel law and the nature of our press being fairly unconstrained even in comparison to other countries that have something approximating a free press.

The standard for libel (media publication of false and generally negative character) is much lower for public figures than private figures in America.

Since most of these "businessmen" are essentially public figures through the nature of their work, it's much less risky for various media outlets to publish questionable stories about them. And in the US, the truth is always a libel defense.

Depending on where you live, it might be outright illegal to publish these sorts of stories about your businessmen unless there's an obvious paper trail (sale of soccer club) or a conviction (son kills someone).

This is why libel suits for internationally relevant people are almost always pursued in countries other than the US.

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boojieboy666@reddit

I mean it’s on tv but I really don’t care.

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WarMinister23@reddit

No? Some businessmen also have celebrity status (Mark Cuban, Elon, pre-2015 Trump) or are near-universally loathed (Bezos, Elon again, etc.), but in general like, people don't obsess over "big bussinessmen." I'm sure folks living in smaller towns are tuned into like what the big landowning banker does or whatever, but like, nobody pays attention to every CEO or whoever.

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an_edgy_lemon@reddit

No, we don’t, but media wants us to care about them.

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EconomicsRelevant993@reddit

If they killed someone it would probably make the news!

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Own_Box4276@reddit

Nope I don't care at all. I care about you being a decent person

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Marscaleb@reddit

When something like that happens in a show, I assume they are reading/watching news specifically geared toward business, not the regular news.

There are news journals and shows that specifically focus on businesses and the stock market and things like that. I've never read any of them but I would assume if something happened that could impact stock prices, it would get a headline.

But the major news outlets are too busy catering to the lowest-common-denominator to care about what is going on the business world.

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cherrycuishle@reddit

There are probably a million businessmen/women in NYC alone, certainly not every one of them is making the news.

What tv shows are you referring to? I feel like there is probably some other reason or nuance that you’re missing

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

What?

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jessek@reddit

TV isn’t real life.

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Communal-Lipstick@reddit

We do not hear about businessmen nearly as much as Taylor Swift and other celebrity irl.

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Spiritual_Lemonade@reddit

I don't even know what a businessman means.

I usually could also care less what they are up to

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seaofthievesnutzz@reddit

Celebrity business men have some amount of people who care about what they do or say. Most CEO's do things all the time and no one gives a shit. Most Americans couldn't name 10 billionaires.

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Sufficient_Cod1948@reddit

This is called a plot device, all shows have them, even the ones in your country.

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Fair-Vermicelli-7770@reddit

Yes, especially when favored companies get new CEOs.

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SunDroppity@reddit

Just a plot device in TV shows. News is made for similar reasons you describe, not just "Businessman does something"

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TheBimpo@reddit

Can you provide an example of a businessman “doing something that makes the news”?

Would you watch a television show about a businessman who just goes about his day and no drama occurs?

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In most of the American shows I watch

its just easy way to give context to make the person and their doings seem like a big deal.