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But if Google adds a lot of value to our society should we not consider amending our laws to make the business viable?

• glimshe 3y ago
  How would that work? Business becomes big by breaking the laws then we change the laws so business stays big?
  • arp242 3y ago
    That's quite literally Uber's business model for large parts of the world. It's rather sad that these kind of "businesses" aren't just banned and prosecuted as criminal conspiracies. I really think that's the appropriate classification for an organisation that goes in to a country, sets up a business it knows is illegal, stokes up violence, and reaps in profit (well, "profit", because it still doesn't actually make a profit).
    • unmole 3y ago
      > stokes up violence What now?
      • arp242 3y ago
        From https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak... Amid taxi strikes and riots in Paris, Kalanick ordered French executives to retaliate by encouraging Uber drivers to stage a counter-protest with mass civil disobedience. Warned that doing so risked putting Uber drivers at risk of attacks from “extreme right thugs” who had infiltrated the taxi protests and were “spoiling for a fight”, Kalanick appeared to urge his team to press ahead regardless. “I think it’s worth it,” he said. “Violence guarantee[s] success. And these guys must be resisted, no? Agreed that right place and time must be thought out.” The decision to send Uber drivers into potentially volatile protests, despite the risks, was consistent with what one senior former executive told the Guardian was a strategy of “weaponising” drivers, and exploiting violence against them to “keep the controversy burning”. It was a playbook that, leaked emails suggest, was repeated in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
        • unmole 3y ago
          Ah, so it's the French Taxi drivers and far right thugs who were indulging in violence. But it's clearly Uber's fault. They were asking for it. /s
          • ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
            the part about Uber using their employees as expendible pawns and encouraging them to go into harm's way sounds pretty damning
          • arp242 3y ago
            This is not "pff, violence won't happen". That's a subjective assessment. It's "okay, violence could happen, that would be fantastic for us! Let's send our employees so that we can use that as an argueing point!" (always good to make the other guy look like a violent thug). All in the context of Uber intentionally breaking the law (which is not my assessment, it's their own, and that of the French authorities).
  • postingawayonhn 3y ago
    It's not exclusive to big business. Often laws are drafted without considering business models that have yet to be thought of. When those businesses start operating it's common for laws to be changed to ensure they are properly regulated.
  • Nasrudith 3y ago
    How did opening up dispensaries work after marijuana was legalized? People complain en-masse/lobbied "this law is fucking stupid" and it gets amended.
• Zambyte 3y ago
  By what metric do you claim Google "adds a lot of value to our society"?