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Comment by JustSomeNobody | Hacker News Reader

I am not defending Google. But, come on, what are they supposed to do? America is all about shareholder value and quarter after quarter after quarter gains. We created this beast. We share in some of the blame.

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We who?

The current American economic system has been in place long before I was born and will continue without or without me. It is run by those who control it, not those who it controls.

Do you vote? Do you invest? Do you say, I'm not the problem, someone else it?

They’re supposed to do the right thing even when it costs them, just like the rest of us. They don’t get excused just because they’re incentivized to do the wrong thing. Most of us manage to keep our morals even when it would be to our advantage not to.

Also worth remembering that complaining about this is a very important action. The market is amoral by definition, and values morality only as much as participants demand it to.

Yes indeed! The answer to “What are they supposed to do?” could be “Realize it will cost them too much due to the backlash.”

This is a misconception. They are not "like the rest of us", in that they are a publicly traded corporation with a legal obligation to chase shareholder value above all else. "We" are private individual citizens.

I’m talking about the individuals making these decisions, not the company itself.

Speaking of misconceptions, the obligation to maximize shareholder value is one. Companies have to do what their shareholders want, but it doesn’t have to be profit maximization.

They could look to what companies like Apple do? i.e. not develop products that compromise human rights for profit?

My iPhone was made in China. Where was yours made?

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