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It’s not that companies are amoral in a negative sense, but that you shouldn’t anthropomorphize them. All companies are there to make a profit, some might have

It’s not that companies are amoral in a negative sense, but that you shouldn’t anthropomorphize them. All companies are there to make a profit, some might have a business model that is in line with your personal moral benchmarks, but just that it’s a business model. Both public and private companies can have business models that are driven by the morality of their founders and key employees but it’s still a business model. Cygnus wasn’t more moral than say Oracle, they just had developed a business model around FOSS services that was unique, since they didn’t held any IP they didn’t had the tools that some people may consider immoral such as protecting their patents through law suits or worse rent seeking based on IP they hold. Same goes for other companies today that primarily rely on FOSS software I don’t consider Ubuntu, Red Hat (even before the acquisition) or even Purism to be “moral” companies just because they can’t or don’t hammer someone with law suits or rake in royalties. I also don’t consider opposition to companies that do to be a simple moral issue. I can and do have my own opinions about companies that I feel practice more rent seeking than actual innovation or any sort of productive activity but I don’t see it to be a particularly moral stance to want them to go into financial trouble because in the end the losers will be their employees and shareholders. I much rather see companies like Oracle for example be successful based on true productivity than go into financial trouble.

ta2234234242 6y ago
> It’s not that companies are amoral in a negative sense, but that you shouldn’t anthropomorphize them. But companies are run by people. I think it's easier to think that companies are more like profit robots to get past our qualms of what we expect of humans, but in the end they are made of and run by humans. So much ink of US history has been used to write about corporate scandals and the profiteering that we just come to expect it -- notably the 2008 recession was caused by pure unadulterated greed on a vast scale. JPMC plead guilty to three felonies and basically got a handslap. Talk about moral hazard! https://www.huffpost.com/entry/time-for-three-strikes-an_b_7596946 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/time-for-three-strikes-an_b_7... PS. You might think that $35B is a large fine, but they have $3T under management. https://www.google.com/search?q=JPMC+assets+under+management&oq=JPMC+assets+under+management&aqs=chrome..69i57l2j69i59.4812j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=JPMC+assets+under+management...
- dogma1138 6y ago
  People do amoral stuff all the time, even those who claim they have high morals. What most morals are is boils down to what behavior is acceptable and beneficial or to be more exact the set of incentives and repercussions that society enforces. No one can really argue that downloading a movie or a songs is an objectively moral act, however most people can easily justify it as a victimless crime, some even justify it by claiming that the entertainment industry itself is immoral. What you essentially have is people with targets and an incentive structure that is misaligned with what you or society at large consider to be moral. If a business can make a large sum of money by doing something against the rules and the punishment is smaller than the profits it will essentially always lead to “amoral” behavior.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- salawat 6y ago
  The thing I find interesting, is that part of what makes up the deterrence of a felony is the loss of representation in the political system, yet, corporations aren't hamstrung by that at all. They don't get a proper vote in the system, yet their lobbyists still get a say when it comes to regulatory proceedings. Until we can actually deprive bad acting companies of the ability to influence the political landscape, nothing is going to stand a significant chance of actually making a misalignment of moral/legal compass hurt.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    This isn’t an issue in every country, I also don’t think that it’s that much of a deterrence.

ta2234234242 6y ago

> It’s not that companies are amoral in a negative sense, but that you shouldn’t anthropomorphize them. But companies are run by people. I think it's easier to think that companies are more like profit robots to get past our qualms of what we expect of humans, but in the end they are made of and run by humans. So much ink of US history has been used to write about corporate scandals and the profiteering that we just come to expect it -- notably the 2008 recession was caused by pure unadulterated greed on a vast scale. JPMC plead guilty to three felonies and basically got a handslap. Talk about moral hazard! https://www.huffpost.com/entry/time-for-three-strikes-an_b_7596946 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/time-for-three-strikes-an_b_7... PS. You might think that $35B is a large fine, but they have $3T under management. https://www.google.com/search?q=JPMC+assets+under+management&oq=JPMC+assets+under+management&aqs=chrome..69i57l2j69i59.4812j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=JPMC+assets+under+management...

dogma1138 6y ago
People do amoral stuff all the time, even those who claim they have high morals. What most morals are is boils down to what behavior is acceptable and beneficial or to be more exact the set of incentives and repercussions that society enforces. No one can really argue that downloading a movie or a songs is an objectively moral act, however most people can easily justify it as a victimless crime, some even justify it by claiming that the entertainment industry itself is immoral. What you essentially have is people with targets and an incentive structure that is misaligned with what you or society at large consider to be moral. If a business can make a large sum of money by doing something against the rules and the punishment is smaller than the profits it will essentially always lead to “amoral” behavior.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
salawat 6y ago
The thing I find interesting, is that part of what makes up the deterrence of a felony is the loss of representation in the political system, yet, corporations aren't hamstrung by that at all. They don't get a proper vote in the system, yet their lobbyists still get a say when it comes to regulatory proceedings. Until we can actually deprive bad acting companies of the ability to influence the political landscape, nothing is going to stand a significant chance of actually making a misalignment of moral/legal compass hurt.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  This isn’t an issue in every country, I also don’t think that it’s that much of a deterrence.