[ganzuul]

Shareholder liability is much too limited.

[shoto_io]

Liability for what? Burn-outs? They are liable. When the company goes bust they lose their money.

[patrickk]

If the case of CD Projekt Red with the recent Cyberpunk 2077 game is anything to go by, the shareholders will get large bonuses while the cannon fodder get mandatory crunch time, stress, overwork, are forced to ship out shoddy work etc. Of course the bonuses are due to the companies prior good reputation so it remains to be seen whether or not that continues. But this situation is quite typical in the games industry and most likely others too

[ganzuul]

Don't a lot of those employees have options?

[ganzuul]

Unless they lose more it's not liability.

Ed: I can't take the first question seriously... Is it really a serious question?

[shoto_io]

Yes it is! I wouldn't even know how to measure the responsibility of a shareholder. What if I own just 1 stock of Apple? Am I then liable? I don't get it

[ganzuul]

Sure you are liable because you can sell at any time. You voted with your money to approve all that Apple has done. You don't approve a measure of it; that would be absurd. If you missed a shareholder meeting where they discussed doing something terrible, you are liable. As a shareholder you have the ultimate responsibility for the company because no one is there to tell you otherwise. You don't abolish yourself of your wrongdoing be remaining ignorant of what is being done in your name. This results from the very basic ethics of how society works so... I really don't like having to explain this to one of its members. ED: and once again the courageous mice of HN arrive to mindlessly downvote... you people sure are an endless source of disappointment

[pdimitar]

Not sure where your assumptions about HN are coming from but there's plenty of us around here who don't know the dynamics of being a shareholder simply because we are almost always at the bottom of the food chain.

Or do you think HN is an exclusive forum for actual business owners and shareholders?

[ganzuul]

You have 5k karma and have never noticed moderation here being a little bit trigger happy with the downvotes? Or is there something else you would like me to understand?

I don't think HN is exclusively business owners and shareholders, but I do believe that there is a lot more of it here than in hacker culture in general. I'd like to own a business myself one day, but I'm not sure I can extend myself to the ruthlessness required to survive as one.