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I agree that many people perceive this as an absolute truth, and I have to reluctantly acknowledge Milton Friedman's success in completely changing the narrativ

I agree that many people perceive this as an absolute truth, and I have to reluctantly acknowledge Milton Friedman's success in completely changing the narrative around corporate responsibilities. I don't think that the adoption of this narrative is due to the Internet though; the original Supreme Court decision of Dodge v. Ford legally enshrined it and the narrative has been actively taught for a long time. I know that I took it at face value for a long time as a result of my education along with the overwhelming share of my peers so I'd say this has been pushed by a broad segment of society. At present we do rely on shareholders in different parts of society to fund new ventures -- most of us are here on HN because we worked at a VC-funded startup. Shareholders should get paid out. But workers have a stake in a company, the community has a stake in a company, and society at large has some small stake in a company. We shouldn't select shareholders as the main voting party in the operations of a company when the impacts of company operations are so much wider. For good examples of companies whose impact was much larger than the shareholders, see also: DuPont/Chemours with PFAS, the manufacturers of CFCs, oil companies, etc.

avs733 3y ago
> I don't think that the adoption of this narrative is due to the Internet though; Clarifying…I meant the narratives in general, not this particular one. When your information sphere becomes narrowed, whatever narratives are within it tend to be reinforced and over time become inseparable from reality. Left and right, Russian and American, etc. it doesn’t matter it happens.
- asdff 3y ago
  You are correct, but the sphere is larger than it ever was today, and the effect was much more pronounced in the past. There was a time when a full 15% of the American population was regularly watching Walter Cronkite each night. A lot of the counter culture movement of the 1970s was a reaction against this prescribed capitalist reality that the vast majority of the population bought into.

avs733 3y ago

> I don't think that the adoption of this narrative is due to the Internet though; Clarifying…I meant the narratives in general, not this particular one. When your information sphere becomes narrowed, whatever narratives are within it tend to be reinforced and over time become inseparable from reality. Left and right, Russian and American, etc. it doesn’t matter it happens.

asdff 3y ago
You are correct, but the sphere is larger than it ever was today, and the effect was much more pronounced in the past. There was a time when a full 15% of the American population was regularly watching Walter Cronkite each night. A lot of the counter culture movement of the 1970s was a reaction against this prescribed capitalist reality that the vast majority of the population bought into.