Scifi megacorps are always cheapskates

[chaos42]

its something ive noticed in things like Alien with wayland yutani or the ship in system shock 2, or just any far future mega corp or just a corporation in general, they always cut costs and things always go down hill from there

Take a look at Aliens the nostromo is old out of date and should even be flying because its so out poorly kept but they keep it running and bride the inspectors to make more money, but eventually something will go wrong and the payload will get lost like it did in aliens. why is it that it seems all the megacorps are so allergic to spending any money on these projects, any savings they make will be rendered moot when they make a big loss which because of the way companies report their earnings will look even worse. Short sighted fools is all i can answer.

But i was thinking what corporate stupidity do you think is the worse when it comes to the sci fi universe

[Edvarius]

I don't think you really need to go to sci-fi to find examples of corporations being run by short sighted idiots who cut more corners than they really should. But then that may just be my bitterness coming through as a Californian wondering how much fire I'm going to have to put up with this year because of PG&E.

[clearspira]

LOL. Have you ever worked for a large corporation? The only money they spend is on executive wages and on anything that the general public can see.

[Nealithi]

Yeah corporations in general work on spend as little as possible to bring in as much as possible.
One of my examples isn't even a corporation. It is the US government. My father worked as a designer in the nearby navy yard and they had a classic room sized computer to run the very old CAD system. It was run for decades this way till they would have to get parts made for it that would cost more than what it originally cost. And replaced it with a system using Windows 98NT. He called it a Rip van Winkle on how they did things. He was used to using big reel tapes to move parts designs. Being shown drag and drop blew his mind. And they were still using 98NT when he left in 2005. No upgrades. . .

So seriously not just Mega Corps. One has to ask where the money is being spent.

[ProfessorDetective]

Yeah corporations in general work on spend as little as possible to bring in as much as possible.
One of my examples isn't even a corporation. It is the US government. My father worked as a designer in the nearby navy yard and they had a classic room sized computer to run the very old CAD system. It was run for decades this way till they would have to get parts made for it that would cost more than what it originally cost. And replaced it with a system using Windows 98NT. He called it a Rip van Winkle on how they did things. He was used to using big reel tapes to move parts designs. Being shown drag and drop blew his mind. And they were still using 98NT when he left in 2005. No upgrades. . .

So seriously not just Mega Corps. One has to ask where the money is being spent.

A lot of departments are STILL using floppy disks (most famously our nuclear launch systems) and a lot of the issues folks have been having trying to file for unemployment during the pandemic were because most of the infrastructure is still using flipping COBOL.


youtu.be/Ox_Wm6XQnxI

[chaos42]

i know modern corporations do that i worked for one that still used a dos based system until 10 yrs ago and it only stopped because the company collapsed due to its own stupidity. movie gallery---

the guys who worked there didn't know what they were doing.

but the thing that gets me is that this is a question of these things going boom and wiping out all the profits and what they have sunk into it


take the nostromo its been refitted to be a cargo hauler but its unsafe full of wiring faults and is not up to code-but they bride the guys inspecting because its cheaper than fixing it, but here is the thing the ship is eventually going to fail something and be lost along with what ever its hauling, meaning those millions or more are lost as well as the resources and what ever its moving -ie the mobile factory thats making plastic out of oil. in the book.

so why wouldn't they at least make the ship able to ensure they don't lose all that money. Because once they do the work needed its fixed for a long time and im betting the brides they have to pay are probably over time more expensive and it eliminates the risk.

the only way i see it is that the person who would have to sign off on it doesn't want to look bad so its a case of passing the buck, someone has to do it but they keep passing it so that no one does it and they spend more.

Any examples you see like that in sci fi or real life. --want to make this interesting

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

The phrase "penny wise and pound foolish" is pretty accurate.

You don't need to be smart to become a CEO. That's the sad truth of it. And even the smart ones care about themselves more than the company. You slash all the long-term assets for a brief short term game, then leave and sell your stock options to pocket a bundle. Then you get a job at another company because look how good a job you did, they couldn't survive without you!

Or go with the Reacher Gilt quote.

You make money building it up. You make money as it breaks down. You may even make a little money running it. Then you sell it and lease it to yourself.

[Riedquat]

There's definitely an element of scraping the barrel for anything unsexy but necessary, but some of the examples on here sound like classic cases of "if it ain't broken don't fix it."

[ProfessorDetective]

There's definitely an element of scraping the barrel for anything unsexy but necessary, but some of the examples on here sound like classic cases of "if it ain't broken don't fix it."

But when it DOES break it's often too LATE to fix it (and often MORE expensive). 'An ounce of prevention...' and all that.

[McAvoy]

Well you don't have to look any further than Amazon as an example. They are famous for making people work their asses off (not bad in itself) but they will try to keep them only working certain amount of hours so they are qualified for any benefits. Ever wonder why you get a giant box for a small item packed with a single or two packing pillows (whatever they are called)? I was once told its due to how they pack trucks. It's like Tetris with boxes. Some computer program tells the packer to use a certain size box so it can fit perfectly in the truck and prevent anything from shifting around. I even heard they are pretty strict with their truck drivers too.

I could easily see Space Amazon cutting corners there too. No care for the crew manning the Space Amazon Truck etc...