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Profit isn't the main distorting thing here, the root is social pressure and ideological belief.

• akudha 5y ago
  When it comes to big corporations, maximizing profit is the only thing that matters. Someone like Dan Carlin doesn’t need to make millions of dollars, doesn’t need to answer to investors. That gives him the luxury of taking as much time as he needs, to make the best episodes possible. Of course most of these creators wouldn’t make content if there is no money in it, they gotta eat too! But unlike mega corporations, money is just one of the factors to them, not the only factor
  • csee 5y ago
    That's the theory of shareholder capitalism, but in practice there are modern cultural pressures that dislocate profit motive from behavior. Primarily agency conflict of interest between employees who believe strongly in social justice (as one example) and the employer's profit motive. Said employees create significant social peer pressures inside the org's culture, for example organizing walkouts based on their principles, which forces the hand of the execs. Execs are scared of the employees and prefer to cede to the new culture rather than challenge it and face their two minutes of hate. These are all just people following their private incentives and beliefs at the expense of the employer's profit motive. A concrete example of this is when tech company employees protest their employer's contracts with the army. That works against the exec's judgment of what is profitable. Now, this only happens when there is true ideological conviction. Otherwise the profit motive rules the day.