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Comment by mrybczyn | Hacker News Reader

Google+Alphabet yearly revenues are in the same ballpark as South Africa's GDP.

Google/Alphabet is already a country in its own right, and libertarians would already be sceptical of Google's role in society.

This is just another step down a long road of Technocracy...

Also, wasn't "Don't be evil" dropped as a motto? I thought I read that.

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No. It's right here: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html

Common misconception, and pointless to even bring it up. Because while "Don't be evil" is in their code of conduct, they regularly do evil.

Countries aren’t defined by the size of their economy but, at the very least, the monopoly of violence. Google doesn’t hold such a monopoly and likely never will...

Power is more complex than the direct application of violence. Corporate relationships with governments can induce them, and often have induced, violent reactions against people harming a company's interests.

That does not a country make.

Which do you care more about? Power and who has it or the label "country"?

Yes when Eric joined.

Do you consider all the great scientists who helped the US military during WWII evil? Would you have preferred they sat on the sideline for moral reasons and allowed Germany to win?

Sorry, which war are we fighting now, and against whom?

There’s a vaguesly worded Authorization of Use of Military Force, I think, from post 9/11, but, last I checked the US hasn’t declared war on anyone.

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