It would be pretty funny for a court to actually determine that a “just business” is synonymous with “doing evil”
In general I think business is not good or evil. They just operate on law frameworks given to them.
If company can be 30% more efficient by being more “on the edge” of law and regulation, it is more probably going to succeed.
This is why governments must regulate the hell out of everything, because the system itself is not doing it. It should include data protection, unions, environment etc.
Can’t fool me, they gave it away when they removed “Don’t be evil” from their motto back in 2015.
The above was a reference to a rather famous instance of George W Bush fumbling over trying to remember the full quite.
They were already evil at that time so honestly it was refreshingly honest when they dropped it
Except they didn’t drop it.
And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don’t_be_evil it’s dropped. Telling investors somewhere in the code of conduct is different from being their official motto
No they didn’t. Please stop spreading this false rumour.
https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/
And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!
That’s not their motto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil was specifically removed from their motto in 2015
“Stop spreading this false rumor” and then gets proven wrong by a simple link to Wikipedia found in 5 seconds on google. I’m curious if they own stock in Alphabet, as I wouldn’t give a shit about their internal code of ethics when they don’t seemingly obey them.
Also “false rumor” is kind of a needless statement. A rumor is false until proven true. Like an “unsolved mystery” is always unsolved, if it was solved, it would not be a mystery.
Lol, how simplistic do you have to be to believe this means anything? First off, you need to believe in good and evil, which are completely arbitrary. And do you think they thought “hmm, we need to start doing evil things do extract more profit… Change the motto so everybody knows! But then we’ll pretend to not be evil when confronted about this change…”
Maybe being evil would be to not change the motto and start doing evil acts anyway. Simpler answer is that somebody probably thought it was a stupid thing to have on there in the first place, and was likely thought up by a Cheeto stained LOTR neckbeard.
They started deemphasizing the motto when they became a conglomerate in 2015, and removed it completely in 2018 after employees started getting fired for criticizing Google’s shady dealings with the Customs and Border Protection Agency.
Essentially, the employees argued that Google including “don’t be evil” in their contracts made them ethically obligated to speak up against bad behavior, and they didn’t actually want that. So it appears Google did indeed have a definition of “evil,” and when forced to choose between changing their practice or their definition, they chose the latter.
It’s what is known as a canary statement. Taken from when miners used to take canaries into the mines so that the bird would die first if there was toxic gas.
If the canary is dead, something is wrong. Google had it in their mission statement to not do bad things, then that was quietly removed. The canary is dead.
Spoken like a guy who wants to avoid getting in trouble for being a bad person
Google seems a great fit for you
These are not mutually exclusive statements.
A publicly traded company is legally obligated to be evil.
Are you perhaps referring to the myth that the law requires companies to maximize shareholder profits above all else?
Ok I was ready to disparage your link since the domain ends in .ai, but actually that was a decent read and a pretty good argument. I’m glad to have better knowledge of the actual court rulings.
Who/Where are these people that believe that? I have heard people say shareholders only care about profits, but I have never heard anyone say it was a law to maximize them. Regardless, they do love profits more than anyone or anything at any company. Companies also like to keep their shareholders happy. Evil comes about becuase of these.
Is profit at any cost morally irresponsible?
No, it’s the consumers who are wrong.
