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This sort of thing always makes me think of the classical class warfare context of charity from business. People know that the business they're conducting is d
by jaggederest 13y ago
This sort of thing always makes me think of the classical class warfare context of charity from business.
People know that the business they're conducting is damaging society at large, so they build charity in so that they can feel like they're absolved.
1% is pretty trivial, particularly since it's of profit, not revenue. Sure, it's a lot of money, but by comparison with the possible impact of a larger commitment of time and resources it looks cheap. Makes you sad to think most companies don't even do that much.
- AnimalMuppet 13y agoWell, employing thousands of people in high-paying jobs is also a pretty positive impact on society...
- ericd 13y agoIt's not always a net positive, no. If the employees make that money while not producing anything notably positive (hedge funds are a pretty good example), they're actually just sucking money out of the system, like the mythological "welfare queens" of the Reagan era but on a much larger scale, and with the pernicious side effect of looking like they're doing something useful.
- theorique 13y agoPeople know that the business they're conducting is damaging society at large, so they build charity in so that they can feel like they're absolved. Google (or Apple, or Oracle) is damaging society? Must have missed that memo. Because from where a lot of people stand, the ability to access the world's knowledge and information, communicate with loved ones, and many other tasks, from a handheld device that costs a day's pay for the average worker ... that's not really "damaging society at large" so much as it is giving people an amazing gift.
- username223 13y agoYou could use this amazing gift to read up on "externalities," then engage your mind-blowing intelligence to think about how that is relevant to this discussion.