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Comment by banads | Hacker News Reader

>The other way to think about how to steel man the idea would be to think about how the government measures its success which is most likely by whether or not those in power keep staying in power?

The same is true for Google or any corporation, their success is primarily measured by their stock price, not by how well they achieve their ideals

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Except that Google’s stock price is both in the hands of its employees and directly benefits its employees. They have a clear stake in it. Besides, this idea is separate from the idea around purpose in terms of values/ideals. This is purpose in terms of defining success. The goal is to steel man the idea, in contrast to what I’d probably call a straw man of purpose as represented in a line in the Constitution.

>Except that Google’s stock price is both in the hands of its employees and directly benefits its employees. They have a clear stake in it.

Again, the same is true for democratic governments.

How so? What is the measure by which an employee of the government could point to in which improving it directly increases their livelihood? If I’m a Google employee and the way in which Google’s success is defined is Google’s stock price then I have a clear measure AND since my compensation is tied directly to it, if I improve that measure then I get more compensation. Hard for me to see any similar type of link in government.

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