6 ms·

I still don't understand why Google's leadership believe they should support and serve the interests of the Chinese dictatorship.

blacksmith_tb 8y ago
Presumably their shareholders would like them to "don't be unprofitable."
- skybrian 8y ago
  More specifically, I believe only the founders have enough voting shares to make a difference, so ultimately this decision rests with them. But there are certainly a lot of other Googlers who would be happy if the stock went up. Google being an idealistic place originally, I doubt any of these people care only about the stock going up, though.
awakeasleep 8y ago
•Discourse control •Media restriction •Subversive content attribution China is willing to underwrite the R&D Google is putting into those systems. They are all growth areas. Google needs to be in the game, and they need a foreign market to test the technology on before it can be deployed elsewhere.
sidcool 8y ago
I still don't understand why we expect public trading, for-profit Companies to heed to ethics or morals. Profit is the bottom line. Nothing is more sacred than that. And this applies quite generally, even for <insert your favorite company here>
- wmeredith 8y ago
  Because companies are made of people. Nothing a company does isn't decided at some.point by a person. That "profit is the only sacred thing" line is nonsense. It is possible to run a company ethically. There isn't some moralimparative to justify a means towards the end of never leaving any money on the table. Where does that line get drawn? Theft, murder, torture? There are all kinds of things companies do every day the equal passing on dollars for ethical reasons.
  - sidcool 8y ago
    The line is drawn by the top management. If there is no fear of getting caught, there is no line, and history is a testimony of it. And all this exactly because companies are made of people.

blacksmith_tb 8y ago

Presumably their shareholders would like them to "don't be unprofitable."

skybrian 8y ago
More specifically, I believe only the founders have enough voting shares to make a difference, so ultimately this decision rests with them. But there are certainly a lot of other Googlers who would be happy if the stock went up. Google being an idealistic place originally, I doubt any of these people care only about the stock going up, though.

awakeasleep 8y ago

•Discourse control •Media restriction •Subversive content attribution China is willing to underwrite the R&D Google is putting into those systems. They are all growth areas. Google needs to be in the game, and they need a foreign market to test the technology on before it can be deployed elsewhere.

sidcool 8y ago

I still don't understand why we expect public trading, for-profit Companies to heed to ethics or morals. Profit is the bottom line. Nothing is more sacred than that. And this applies quite generally, even for <insert your favorite company here>

wmeredith 8y ago
Because companies are made of people. Nothing a company does isn't decided at some.point by a person. That "profit is the only sacred thing" line is nonsense. It is possible to run a company ethically. There isn't some moralimparative to justify a means towards the end of never leaving any money on the table. Where does that line get drawn? Theft, murder, torture? There are all kinds of things companies do every day the equal passing on dollars for ethical reasons.
- sidcool 8y ago
  The line is drawn by the top management. If there is no fear of getting caught, there is no line, and history is a testimony of it. And all this exactly because companies are made of people.