4 ms·

I’m genuinely interested, can you provide a source for this? My understanding of companies is they have always been exploitative. Any large company from the gi

I’m genuinely interested, can you provide a source for this? My understanding of companies is they have always been exploitative. Any large company from the gilded age is a good example (now almost a century ago). Further back, the companies of the industrial revolution were legendary for their amorality. Another example I’m familiar with is coal companies in Scotland before WWI.

pmontra 7y ago
This is an interesting article on the subject https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-co... (2015) This is another one https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/columns/the-purpose-of-business-is-not-to-make-a-profi https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/colum... from 2011. The points are * Serving shareholders’ “best interests” is not the same thing as either maximizing profits, or maximizing shareholder value * Profit, but not Profit Maximization
wool_gather 7y ago
The Shareholder Value Myth is a good recent-ish book laying out the case that maximizing profits no matter what is not in fact a requirement. There's been discussion of it occasionally on HN. For example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17529520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17529520