4 ms·

The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. If it doesn't make a profit it dies. A business essentially acts in its own self interest through its

The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. If it doesn't make a profit it dies. A business essentially acts in its own self interest through its employees. Proof of that is that if an employee hurts profits, the business will likely dispose of them. You can try to enact change via a bottom-up approach, where all of the employees decide to introduce a new primary metric, e.g. climate impact, alongside profits, but it's pretty clear that humans are not terribly good at agreeing and acting for the good of humanity (see all the wars happening right now). I think a top-down approach where the government includes 'climate impact' as an existential metric for all businesses would have more success because it wouldn't require all the people in all the businesses to agree, only the elected officials would have to agree. Unfortunately, elected officials are people too, and by definition they're not terribly good at agreeing either. That said, it's a more tractable problem. This is why I think enacting laws to change the purpose of businesses is more realistic, than to appeal to employees. The latter is useful too, but as part of spreading the message to all the people that "it's up to us" to influence the results of elections, so that we elect people who could enact this change from the top down.

norir 3y ago
> The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. From some angles, it seems like the sole point of most businesses is to keep people busy and employed so that they don't actually try to meaningfully change their circumstances.
JohnFen 3y ago
> The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. That's not the sole point, but it is important. That said, it doesn't mean we should accept the "as much profit as possible regardless of societal cost" stance a lot of businesses take. A more sustainable, human, and less harmful thing would be to go back to the idea that businesses should make a reasonable profit, not profit at any cost.
- avmich 3y ago
  Yes, I agree that "profit is the whole purpose of the business" is oversimplification. This point is well illustrated in "Other People's Money", 1991. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
- neuralRiot 3y ago
  The problem is that business profit is tied to its growth, Apple or General Motors, just to name 2, could make a profit indefinitely but if the stocks don’t go up it’s a loss hence the need to implement new measures that would signify growth, Apple could for example argue that tying parts to devices increase the chances of higher sales or GM that by having to program every single bolt or nut increases genuine part sales.
webmobdev 3y ago
The Seven Social Sins / Blunders: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle. Commerce Without Morality: As in wealth without work we indulge in commerce without morality to make more money by any means possible. Price gouging, palming off inferior products, cheating and making false claims are a few of the obvious ways in which we indulge in commerce without morality. There are also thousands of other ways in which we do immoral or unethical business. When profit-making becomes the most important aspect of business, morals and ethics usually go overboard. We cut benefits and even salaries of employees. If possible we employ "slave" labour, like the sweat shops and migrant farm workers in New York and California where workers are thoroughly exploited. Profit supersedes the needs of people. When business is unable to deal with labour it begins to mechanize. Mechanization, it is claimed, increases efficiency, but in reality it is instituted simply to make more money. Alternate jobs may be created for a few. Others will fall by the wayside and languish. Who cares? People don't matter, profits do. In more sophisticated language what we are really saying is that those who cannot keep up with the technological changes and exigencies of the times do not deserve to live--a concept on which Hitler built the Nazi Party. If society does not care for such people, can we blame them if they become criminals? Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20050308215331/http://www.gandhiinstitute.org/Library/LibraryItem.cfm?LibraryID=780 https://web.archive.org/web/20050308215331/http://www.gandhi...

norir 3y ago

> The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. From some angles, it seems like the sole point of most businesses is to keep people busy and employed so that they don't actually try to meaningfully change their circumstances.

JohnFen 3y ago

> The sole point of a business existing is to make a profit. That's not the sole point, but it is important. That said, it doesn't mean we should accept the "as much profit as possible regardless of societal cost" stance a lot of businesses take. A more sustainable, human, and less harmful thing would be to go back to the idea that businesses should make a reasonable profit, not profit at any cost.

avmich 3y ago
Yes, I agree that "profit is the whole purpose of the business" is oversimplification. This point is well illustrated in "Other People's Money", 1991. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
neuralRiot 3y ago
The problem is that business profit is tied to its growth, Apple or General Motors, just to name 2, could make a profit indefinitely but if the stocks don’t go up it’s a loss hence the need to implement new measures that would signify growth, Apple could for example argue that tying parts to devices increase the chances of higher sales or GM that by having to program every single bolt or nut increases genuine part sales.

webmobdev 3y ago

The Seven Social Sins / Blunders: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle. Commerce Without Morality: As in wealth without work we indulge in commerce without morality to make more money by any means possible. Price gouging, palming off inferior products, cheating and making false claims are a few of the obvious ways in which we indulge in commerce without morality. There are also thousands of other ways in which we do immoral or unethical business. When profit-making becomes the most important aspect of business, morals and ethics usually go overboard. We cut benefits and even salaries of employees. If possible we employ "slave" labour, like the sweat shops and migrant farm workers in New York and California where workers are thoroughly exploited. Profit supersedes the needs of people. When business is unable to deal with labour it begins to mechanize. Mechanization, it is claimed, increases efficiency, but in reality it is instituted simply to make more money. Alternate jobs may be created for a few. Others will fall by the wayside and languish. Who cares? People don't matter, profits do. In more sophisticated language what we are really saying is that those who cannot keep up with the technological changes and exigencies of the times do not deserve to live--a concept on which Hitler built the Nazi Party. If society does not care for such people, can we blame them if they become criminals? Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20050308215331/http://www.gandhiinstitute.org/Library/LibraryItem.cfm?LibraryID=780 https://web.archive.org/web/20050308215331/http://www.gandhi...