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Comment by fallat | Hacker News Reader

The remedy is Google gives the guy a job or some damn payment. "They don't have to" - well no shit, we don't have to be nice to each other, yet most of us are. Why can't Google be nice to people?

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They don't have to be nice to people, but it would be better if they (still) were not evil.

Because Google is a corporation, not a person. Even if Google decides to be "nice" in this case, this will be for purely selfish reasons (they decide good PR they get from paying this guy is worth more than whatever they pay). Expecting corporations to behave like people is a sure way to get disappointed.

Corporations are made up of people, and people can influence the actions of the corporation, if they try.

Yeah good luck with that. The founding principal and mission of a corporation is to make money at all costs. Being "Good" will always come second to making money, the individuals who make it up are powerless to stop it.

Do you have a source for this? As far as I know the purpose of corporations is to shield owners from losses and not a whole lot beyond that.

The best way to shield owners is to not form a business in the first place.

That's even worse. You, the individual, will just have all the liabilities.

I mean not go into any business

Unclear why you were downvoted, it’s in the name: Limited Liability Company, PLC, Ltd etc.

I've effected positive change in the companies I've worked with in the past, so I guess I know firsthand of anecdotal counter-arguments.

It doesn't matter what corporations are made of, they are their own different thing operating in a different context and according to other rules.

It doesn't matter if it's made of people or ants.

They're made out of people subservient to the owners, whether that's a rich dude or a bunch of shareholders largely shielded from the day to day operations and who just want their stocks to go up a little more. Google is THE poster child of a company whose employees rebelled, even unionized, but who still don't really have much power.

It's a huge advertising company trying to make more money, not a scrappy search tech startup in a garage...

Then perhaps a corporation should not legally be considered as a person, at any level of law.

Corporations can't be nice. They exist to multiply capital of the investors. Among those investors there is a big one - 401ks, index funds and other assets of small people managed by big firms. As an individual investor, do you want your 401k to grow? If you do, you're among the many who force Google to promote efficient nihilists who bring money. If you don't, why haven't you invested your savings in a nonprofit fund helping the homeless?

B Corps exist, ethical investment exists. Corporations are made of people or can be mean or nice. This argument is silly.

How much % of your savings is invested into those B corps?

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