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Sure it would be great for business leaders to change their ways, but the beauty of capitalism is that consumers can force businesses to change by their actions

Sure it would be great for business leaders to change their ways, but the beauty of capitalism is that consumers can force businesses to change by their actions. Mark Zuckerberg could change Facebook overnight, but what incentive does he have? It’s still one of the most populous websites in the world. It’s easy to blame to rich and wealthy for the problems but they cannot force us to give them money. Every time I buy Facebook ads, I’m telling Mark that it’s okay for him to continue what he’s doing. It’s very fun these days to blame the 1% for societies problems. But the 99% enable them.

bschne 7y ago
If you take a very simplistic model of how the economy works, this is true. The problem is when you get into a situation/equilibrium where enabling business practices that you consider to be bad for society as a whole is the rational choice because anything else will just leave you out-competed by someone else who doesn't care. I am not saying that this makes it OK to do whatever because "everyone does" or "if I don't, someone else will", I'm just saying that appealing to individuals to just "do the right thing" has almost never worked to efficiently/swiftly bring about changes like this.
- jasonlfunk 7y ago
  > I'm just saying that appealing to individuals to just "do the right thing" has almost never worked Which is exactly what Mr. Benioff is trying to do with this article. Companies change when it's in their financial interest to do so; and rarely before then.
clairity 7y ago
common folk don’t hate rich people (or the products they offered to get rich), they hate that rich people put a thumb, a palm, an elbow, and a foot on the scales in their favor. no one wants a handout, we want fairness.
virgil_disgr4ce 7y ago
> the beauty of capitalism is that consumers can force businesses to change by their actions Wow. That's adorable. Did you just turn 14?
- dang 7y ago
  You've been breaking the site guidelines a lot lately. If you keep doing it, we're going to have to ban you. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using the site as intended from now on?

bschne 7y ago

If you take a very simplistic model of how the economy works, this is true. The problem is when you get into a situation/equilibrium where enabling business practices that you consider to be bad for society as a whole is the rational choice because anything else will just leave you out-competed by someone else who doesn't care. I am not saying that this makes it OK to do whatever because "everyone does" or "if I don't, someone else will", I'm just saying that appealing to individuals to just "do the right thing" has almost never worked to efficiently/swiftly bring about changes like this.

jasonlfunk 7y ago
> I'm just saying that appealing to individuals to just "do the right thing" has almost never worked Which is exactly what Mr. Benioff is trying to do with this article. Companies change when it's in their financial interest to do so; and rarely before then.

clairity 7y ago

common folk don’t hate rich people (or the products they offered to get rich), they hate that rich people put a thumb, a palm, an elbow, and a foot on the scales in their favor. no one wants a handout, we want fairness.

virgil_disgr4ce 7y ago

> the beauty of capitalism is that consumers can force businesses to change by their actions Wow. That's adorable. Did you just turn 14?

dang 7y ago
You've been breaking the site guidelines a lot lately. If you keep doing it, we're going to have to ban you. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using the site as intended from now on?