Oh my god thank you. Somehow despite being engulfed in this stuff being an I.T person while having affection toward Ed Zitran and full agreement on almost all arguments living this weird ying yang over the topic.

This is the succinct detail I hadn't clued into until this moment of what the core motivation is for all of the crazy spending that makes zero sense. It's literally this. There is no amount of money, lying, cheating or stealing that cannot be justified by the most cynical of capitalist if they believe this is the outcome.

It's such an obvious thing when you put it like that and I'm even sure I've seen it said before but it really hit me for some reason from your comment. They would move mountains if they thought there was even the smallest chance and bet the entire farm over it.

First you have recognize there is no barriers to their cynicism I guess but this is the only root cause conclusion that could be rationalized. That or fomo and temporary wins but for those spending and not on any receiving end, I couldn't make sense of the rational until you said it so plainly.

They are paying for fantasy about rendering people redundant, the sik fuks.

It's not even capitalism anymore, assuming they expect their peers in corruption to actuallg pay each other and themselves a fair amount.