Comment by splintercell | Hacker News Reader

Comment by splintercell | Hacker News Reader

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Companies don't make money by performing activities which are outside the society.

A trash company makes money but collecting trash, a car company makes money by providing cars to people, a law firm makes money by providing legal representation to people.

You're acting like society and its infrastructure is a teat which different companies milk and other people out of their own generosity fill up, so its only fair that they give something back to the society, when this is now how it works.

This infrastructure isn't created so that the CEOs can get rich, it is created so that they can run companies which provide value to the people (and not so that they can pay taxes which, as claimed, is the only utility a company has).

You or someone pay to companies with your money for the value they provide. However companies dont pay for the services goverment give them, like the security of police enforcement and the roads and public transport for their workers to come to work, or the justice system to ensure their rights are protected. In fact, without the goverment the business probably couldnt even be a ble to operate.

In the case of Google, look at the internet. All the base-level physical infrastructure that allows Google to operate is paid for with taxpayer dollars.

This is false. Some of it is, maybe even more than half, but to say “all” is simply blatantly untrue.

> the justice system to ensure their rights are protected

The only way a corporation can protect its property from the whims of the majority is with the help of lobbyist. In fact, US is one of the few countries where the corporations are allowed to formally influence the politicians (and just see how much people who just want to take it all from them in the name of 'fair share' hate this).

In other countries, this system is informal, so in Mexico, the corporations simply have to influence the politicians in an opaque way.

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