3 ms·

There are plenty of businesses whose goal is not mainly profit, but selling a good product/service. RSE and environmental issues are more and more important to

There are plenty of businesses whose goal is not mainly profit, but selling a good product/service. RSE and environmental issues are more and more important to businesses. Paying good salaries should come next. Profit for people already rich enough to invest should come last. That's the only way to get sustainable growth and a healthy society.

CalRobert 7y ago
I believe deeply that we need a profound, fundamental reorganization of our economy and culture to avoid apocalyptic climate breakdown and social collapse. But, right now, starting a business with goals that aren't profitability leaves you vulnerable to somebody else who _will_ maximize profitability. In your own life, even, trying to do things that don't maximize profit (taking more holiday, etc.) leaves you vulnerable to competition from other workers who will do that. We need to design systems where maximizing profit (something humans have been trying to do forever) produces behaviours we desire, like treating the planet and other people better. But blaming a single business working within the constraints they find themselves in is unlikely to help. For example, the lesson of Union Carbide is that it's OK to murder tens of thousands of people through incompetence and willful negligence. Other companies that spent more on safety were effectively punished for doing so, since of course they would have to spend more. This is why we still had Hydrofluoric Acid a risk of killing thousands and thousands of Philadelphians as recently as a few weeks ago.
- magduf 7y ago
  >But, right now, starting a business with goals that aren't profitability leaves you vulnerable to somebody else who _will_ maximize profitability. Don't assume that corporations around the world are all run with an American mindset and according to principles taught in American MBA schools.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    I don't, and I know this. But they still have to compete with them.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

CalRobert 7y ago

I believe deeply that we need a profound, fundamental reorganization of our economy and culture to avoid apocalyptic climate breakdown and social collapse. But, right now, starting a business with goals that aren't profitability leaves you vulnerable to somebody else who _will_ maximize profitability. In your own life, even, trying to do things that don't maximize profit (taking more holiday, etc.) leaves you vulnerable to competition from other workers who will do that. We need to design systems where maximizing profit (something humans have been trying to do forever) produces behaviours we desire, like treating the planet and other people better. But blaming a single business working within the constraints they find themselves in is unlikely to help. For example, the lesson of Union Carbide is that it's OK to murder tens of thousands of people through incompetence and willful negligence. Other companies that spent more on safety were effectively punished for doing so, since of course they would have to spend more. This is why we still had Hydrofluoric Acid a risk of killing thousands and thousands of Philadelphians as recently as a few weeks ago.

magduf 7y ago
>But, right now, starting a business with goals that aren't profitability leaves you vulnerable to somebody else who _will_ maximize profitability. Don't assume that corporations around the world are all run with an American mindset and according to principles taught in American MBA schools.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  I don't, and I know this. But they still have to compete with them.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]