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I have this pet theory that every company that becomes publicly traded on financial markets becomes "evil" because the focus is taken away from customers, and t

• tyingq 8y ago
  They've already done some pretty shady stuff. This is a case where going public might actually work the other direction.
  • adharmad 8y ago
    Going public, they can get better at respecting local laws and regulations, and still sacrifice their customers (and of course employees) at the altar of their shareholders. (At least that is what I read the Op is saying).
    • bunderbunder 8y ago
      Uber already has a pretty strong track record of doing poorly by its emplo-- er, sorry, "independent contractors."
      • fosk 8y ago
        I keep hearing this argument, but well guess what? Nobody is forcing anybody to become an Uber driver. If Uber treats their contractors so poorly, they are always free to go around and explore other options. We live in a capitalistic society, after all.
        • tyingq 8y ago
          One argument is that it may not be actually legal to treat them as contractors. See https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contractor-designation https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contr...
          • fosk 8y ago
            The point I am making is that no driver would ever want to work for Uber if Uber really was that bad. Turns out, drivers evaluated the pros and cons, and decided that regardless of their current treatment it is still better to be an Uber driver rather than going to work for somebody else. I will leave the matter of discussing the legality of how they treat their contractors to our courts. But it's a fact that thousands of drivers still think it's worth driving for Uber regardless of any legal controversy that may (or may not) exist.
• rhizome 8y ago
  My counter-theory is that that's exactly why they go public.
• cm2012 8y ago
  On the contrary IMO. You have to be so transparent about so many things when you go public - it eliminates a lot of room for shadiness.
• mruts 8y ago
  How is that “evil”? Isn’t that the crystallization of the teleological purpose of a company? The ideal company works to maximize shareholder value. And not just short-term value, but the amortized value of the company in perpuitity. This in turn maximizes employee value and customer value. Let’s take a company that has great products and gives away everything for free. In the short-term, this might look like maximizing customer value, but soon, the conpany will go out of business. You could construct a similar example in which employee wages were maximized. The ideal situation is that the company pays employees as little as possible and charges customers as much as possible. In this way, the company is on the efficient frontier. Companies then compete on employee wages and product cost. This creates a Nash equilibrium in which no party can benefit from doing anything differently. This is the highest and most noble calling of the markets and creates the abundent and efficient markets of today (unless of course, the government steps in to fuck everything up). PS: I know I am going to get downvoted, but I would appreciate a comment instead of a downvote.
  • bunderbunder 8y ago
    One criticism, from a philosophical angle, would be that you have foundered on the is-ought problem.
    • repsilat 8y ago
      "Ought" came up in two places: > maximizes employee value and customer value and > the abundent and efficient markets of today I suspect the GP believes it a little more strongly than I do, but I think their point is that we should consider outcomes (i.e. "plenty") rather than stated intentions ("maximum profit"), though their examples mostly illustrated the point in the other direction. Criticising Uber for trying to maximise their profits could be construed as criticising them for delivering customer value. Bit of a stretch, though :-).
  • ximeng 8y ago
    The government (or sufficiently powerful corporations, which effectively take on some aspects of public governance) sets up the framework that the market operates in. Corporations operate in a society which may break down if sufficient pressure is applied to people (e.g. employees, customers). Down vote baiting is discouraged by the site guidelines.
• ac29 8y ago
  Is keeping shareholders happy so much worse than keeping venture capitalists happy?
• plink 8y ago
  Precisely because Uber's trajectory is unswervingly evil, they will eventually arrive at good upon traversing the universe's hypertorus.