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Comment by jabv | Hacker News Reader

"It is generally conceded in our age that a critically strategic producer has an obligation to the public for the sake of the common good."

And what happens if Google says, "f* it, we're not providing a utility, we're not taking traffic from European IPs anymore"?

I am no anarcho-capitalist, but I really think more folks should read Atlas Shrugged.

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Even if Google did this, and got past the shareholder lawsuits, what would happen?

Nothing much. Someone else would step in. Greed and free markets makes the "Atlas Shrugged" scenario nonsense. I'm sure there are millions of smart people who would love it if all the other smart people stopped producing. All it means is more market share for them.

I'm guessing you're posting this as someone who is fully sucked into the Google ecosystem. I was too. But the only Google product I use anymore is Google maps. No more email, no more search, no more android.

Google is very far from indispensable.

Thanks for the response.

I use Google fairly heavily through work and my personal email, but IDK about "fully sucked into" - I have no smartphone, don't use GCal, etc.

Rather than lauding Google, I meant to criticize the idea that the public has a right to a private service.

You named a few Google products to be contrarian and think that Google is far from indispensable? I'm calling bullshit because I'm willing to bet most of the non-Google products you use use Google somewhere in the chain.

I wasn't attempting to be contrarian, I was saying alternatives exist. Even in a business context. Our company uses Google for many things, but there are alternatives. The switching cost is high, but that doesn't make Google indispensable in my book.

Then let them. And then the shareholders and the board would rise up against whoever decided to have Google "go Galt", because they know that they make far more money in Europe than not being in Europe.

Very rarely does acting like a child and "taking your ball and go home" work out.

Then they'd be as stupid as some random Ayn Rand fan on the internet, and wouldn't be running Google.

Thanks for the response.

I disagree with Rand on many important issues.

I think your reply is tantamount to an ad hominem fallacy.

Google isn't a charity, and is under no obligation to serve Europe. It's in Europe, and will remain in Europe because it is profitable to remain there.

This goes both ways.

So? If Google leaves, there's always Bing, DDG, the search engine formerly known as Yahoo!, Yandex...

No, I meant corporations are allowed to exist and operate in no small part for their value to a society, not just for societies value to them. As in, $country is no charity for $corporation either.

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