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> There is such a thing as business ethics. TL;DR version of which is "Make as much money as possible or become irrelevant note in history" Edit: Oh, please.

> There is such a thing as business ethics. TL;DR version of which is "Make as much money as possible or become irrelevant note in history" Edit: Oh, please. Downvotes keep demonstrating a total disconnect between HN responses that require pushing a downvote button and say mass resignation from Google or Facebook or Whatsapp or Well Fargo or Equifax that might trigger a response. So yes, the only business ethics that is relevant in the real world is "Make as much money as possible".

s73v3r_ 8y ago
No, the downvotes are for giving them a pass because they're trying to make money.
- notyourday 8y ago
  I may not like that if I go out in a rain I will get wet, but not acknowledging that as the fact won't keep me dry should I go out in a rain. They sold the company. By selling the company they have become employees, not founders with control. If they did not like it, they should not have sold. If they are remorseful, they can donate 100% of all the money that they made from a sale of the company as well as all the interest that they have accumulated to some me-so-sorry non-profit. Not 10%. Not 50%. 100%. Otherwise those are just empty words, just like protests of HN crowd working for Google, Facebook, Equifax, etc.: empty words that make them feel better.
jschwartzi 8y ago
There's a huge middle ground between being completely irrelevant that you're missing. Plenty of small and medium businesses abide by ethics and make ethical decisions every day. You just don't hear about them because it's not newsworthy that their management tries to do right by the employees or that they pay their bills on time. They're not noteworthy because they're the norm, not the exception.
- notyourday 8y ago
  Exactly. And those small and medium sized businesses are in the dust bin of history. These are the same businesses that everyone at HN laughs at as they only pay $40k/year for senior software engineers.
  - cowpig 8y ago
    Everything is dust in the end..
  - jschwartzi 8y ago
    Funny. Every one of those companies I've worked at paid market rate or better.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

No, the downvotes are for giving them a pass because they're trying to make money.

notyourday 8y ago
I may not like that if I go out in a rain I will get wet, but not acknowledging that as the fact won't keep me dry should I go out in a rain. They sold the company. By selling the company they have become employees, not founders with control. If they did not like it, they should not have sold. If they are remorseful, they can donate 100% of all the money that they made from a sale of the company as well as all the interest that they have accumulated to some me-so-sorry non-profit. Not 10%. Not 50%. 100%. Otherwise those are just empty words, just like protests of HN crowd working for Google, Facebook, Equifax, etc.: empty words that make them feel better.

jschwartzi 8y ago

There's a huge middle ground between being completely irrelevant that you're missing. Plenty of small and medium businesses abide by ethics and make ethical decisions every day. You just don't hear about them because it's not newsworthy that their management tries to do right by the employees or that they pay their bills on time. They're not noteworthy because they're the norm, not the exception.

notyourday 8y ago
Exactly. And those small and medium sized businesses are in the dust bin of history. These are the same businesses that everyone at HN laughs at as they only pay $40k/year for senior software engineers.
- cowpig 8y ago
  Everything is dust in the end..
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  Funny. Every one of those companies I've worked at paid market rate or better.