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It's perfectly legal and fine for companies to provide products and services to their home governments. What's the issue here?

adamnemecek 7y ago
Legal maybe, moral idk, given what they do.
- manigandham 7y ago
  If there's a morality issue, that should be directed at the government.
  - adamnemecek 7y ago
    Why? This way also works. Good luck changing the govt.
    - manigandham 7y ago
      This way just creates chaos and rarely results in any long-term change. And the government changes all the time. It's called voting, and interacting with your representatives. If you have time to be outraged at corporations then you certainly have time to be involved with politics to create change.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    There's nothing wrong with holding a moral lens to all entities, government and private.
  - phs318u 7y ago
    Why? Both corporations and governments are, in theory, supposed to take actions that maximise benefit to their stakeholders. If those stakeholders decide in the majority that morality is a way in which they seek to derive value from either a corporation or a government then those institutions are presumably bound to deliver on those requirements or to be subsequently punished by the majority or their stakeholders. The fact that shareholders (and customers) seem to be more inclined to be demanding moral behaviours from companies, even though they are also (presumably) citizens, is possibly an indication of the fact companies are more responsive in this regard. EDIT: autocorrect
ndespres 7y ago
Ok, but sometimes our moral compass points away from these things and we need to make hard decisions to do the right thing.
- manigandham 7y ago
  Then change the government. This proxy war against corporations is just silly.
  - ndespres 7y ago
    Proxy war? I can use my wallet, my voice, and my labor power as I please including strikes and boycotts. Isn't that how the "free market" is supposed to work? This is the 2nd time in 24 hrs that someone has made your argument, where is it coming from?
    - manigandham 7y ago
      Sure, go ahead. Nobody mentioned anything about a free market or lack thereof.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    I don't think it's silly. I don't boycott companies -- that is, I don't stop doing business with companies in an attempt at getting them to change their behavior. However, there are companies that engage in activities that I find objectionable enough that I simply don't want to help fund them. So I don't buy from those companies. Nothing silly about it.

adamnemecek 7y ago

Legal maybe, moral idk, given what they do.

manigandham 7y ago
If there's a morality issue, that should be directed at the government.
- adamnemecek 7y ago
  Why? This way also works. Good luck changing the govt.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    This way just creates chaos and rarely results in any long-term change. And the government changes all the time. It's called voting, and interacting with your representatives. If you have time to be outraged at corporations then you certainly have time to be involved with politics to create change.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  There's nothing wrong with holding a moral lens to all entities, government and private.
- phs318u 7y ago
  Why? Both corporations and governments are, in theory, supposed to take actions that maximise benefit to their stakeholders. If those stakeholders decide in the majority that morality is a way in which they seek to derive value from either a corporation or a government then those institutions are presumably bound to deliver on those requirements or to be subsequently punished by the majority or their stakeholders. The fact that shareholders (and customers) seem to be more inclined to be demanding moral behaviours from companies, even though they are also (presumably) citizens, is possibly an indication of the fact companies are more responsive in this regard. EDIT: autocorrect

ndespres 7y ago

Ok, but sometimes our moral compass points away from these things and we need to make hard decisions to do the right thing.

manigandham 7y ago
Then change the government. This proxy war against corporations is just silly.
- ndespres 7y ago
  Proxy war? I can use my wallet, my voice, and my labor power as I please including strikes and boycotts. Isn't that how the "free market" is supposed to work? This is the 2nd time in 24 hrs that someone has made your argument, where is it coming from?
  - manigandham 7y ago
    Sure, go ahead. Nobody mentioned anything about a free market or lack thereof.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  I don't think it's silly. I don't boycott companies -- that is, I don't stop doing business with companies in an attempt at getting them to change their behavior. However, there are companies that engage in activities that I find objectionable enough that I simply don't want to help fund them. So I don't buy from those companies. Nothing silly about it.