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Pardon? It is the answer to the question of why companies exist. Companies exist to make profit; capitalism exists to enable for-profit companies to exist becau
by ToValueFunfetti 3y ago
Pardon? It is the answer to the question of why companies exist. Companies exist to make profit; capitalism exists to enable for-profit companies to exist because they benefit society. If a company's goal wasn't to make profit, people wouldn't invest in it, and it wouldn't be a company.
If you don't care, why participate in a conversation about it and ask a sibling reply for a counterpoint?
- ada1981 3y agoWho cases if it’s altruistic or selfish if the outcomes are the same. The argument is that the company exists to benefit society. Profit exists as a side effect of having investors.
- ToValueFunfetti 3y agoSomeone asked whether companies act out of altruism and you replied to say that they do (or did). A bit of a rug pull to then say 'who cares, the outcome is the same'. But the outcomes are not the same. Tracing the conversation back, the top level comment pointed out that we should expect companies to give their profits to investors because they operate for profit. A company that exists to benefit society would be expected to put its profits towards bettering society, or at least towards its own ability to do so. I argue that benefits to society are a side effect of profit-seeking, which capitalism takes advantage of to great effect. A company with no interest in improving the world will nevertheless wind up doing so, because they'll make money in exchange for providing utility, because the system is designed that way. Expecting a company to behave to benefit society instead of for profit will give you bad predictions when the two are at odds.