Someone 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

Someone 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.