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Corporations aren't monoliths, but that's no excuse for the toxic situations known to fester in pockets of mismanagement. If these situations are inevitable in

by gue5t 11y ago

Corporations aren't monoliths, but that's no excuse for the toxic situations known to fester in pockets of mismanagement. If these situations are inevitable in big companies, we'll have to dissolve big companies to get an ethical industry. Ethics should be a higher priority than profit. Companies should focus on having sustainable business models that support their employees while helping their customers, rather than taking advantage of both groups to drive the bottom line. The tech industry seems to think some kind of positivist exceptionalism frees them from worrying about sustainability, and I think venture capital is a significant negative influence there.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
> Corporations aren't monoliths, but that's no excuse for the toxic situations known to fester in pockets of mismanagement. If these situations are inevitable in big companies, we'll have to dissolve big companies to get an ethical industry. Why can't we take the mechanisms that work for groups of small companies and apply them to divisions of a corporation? It's a recursive structure either way, regardless how you name it, so maybe we could just copy parts of what works from the small world to the big world? > Ethics should be a higher priority than profit. Companies should focus on having sustainable business models that support their employees while helping their customers, rather than taking advantage of both groups to drive the bottom line. We'd have to figure out how to run the economy on ethics. So far the term everything is optimized for is measured in dollars. Being nice doesn't pay the rent, doesn't pay for food and doesn't let you send your kids to college. Morality doesn't buy widget parts, doesn't tool factories and doesn't help CEOs get their private jets. I used to have this sentiment that "money shouldn't be above people, wake up CEOs and managers, be human beings!" but I don't believe anymore that it reflects the true state of the world. The incentive structures are too strong, you can shout in the wind all they want, CEOs and managers and politicians will agree, and things won't change anyway, because we're all in too deep serving Moloch[0]. It's not that people don't care - they just don't have as much agency as they think they do. That's the reason I think concepts like automation of industry while switching to something UBI-like are important, because relieving the pressure in the system, letting everyone chill the fuck out, seems to be a good way to reduce the amount of suffering we inflict on each other in pursuit of money. [0] - http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

by gue5t 11y ago

TeMPOraL 11y ago

> Corporations aren't monoliths, but that's no excuse for the toxic situations known to fester in pockets of mismanagement. If these situations are inevitable in big companies, we'll have to dissolve big companies to get an ethical industry. Why can't we take the mechanisms that work for groups of small companies and apply them to divisions of a corporation? It's a recursive structure either way, regardless how you name it, so maybe we could just copy parts of what works from the small world to the big world? > Ethics should be a higher priority than profit. Companies should focus on having sustainable business models that support their employees while helping their customers, rather than taking advantage of both groups to drive the bottom line. We'd have to figure out how to run the economy on ethics. So far the term everything is optimized for is measured in dollars. Being nice doesn't pay the rent, doesn't pay for food and doesn't let you send your kids to college. Morality doesn't buy widget parts, doesn't tool factories and doesn't help CEOs get their private jets. I used to have this sentiment that "money shouldn't be above people, wake up CEOs and managers, be human beings!" but I don't believe anymore that it reflects the true state of the world. The incentive structures are too strong, you can shout in the wind all they want, CEOs and managers and politicians will agree, and things won't change anyway, because we're all in too deep serving Moloch[0]. It's not that people don't care - they just don't have as much agency as they think they do. That's the reason I think concepts like automation of industry while switching to something UBI-like are important, because relieving the pressure in the system, letting everyone chill the fuck out, seems to be a good way to reduce the amount of suffering we inflict on each other in pursuit of money. [0] - http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/