[shadowmore]

I find this individualistic view of the problem fascinating.

It treats companies as individuals and thinks they're all different, which is bolstered by the BS terminology about "corporate culture" that the companies themselves push.

But to anyone who sees the big picture, it's obvious that this is capitalism. Under capitalism, you are a cog in a machine. Always have been, always will be.

This isn't some particular company treating its employees like trash. It's the entire system of commodifying all aspects of life in order for the line in the chart to keep going up indefinitely.

But individualism has people so utterly blind to this that they treat companies as people, which is dystopian to the max.

[pault]

I don't think capitalism has a monopoly on this. It's an intrinsic property of any hierarchical organization.

[shadowmore]

I could see someone argue that, but would a monarch, for example, really hyperfocus nearly as much on optimizing crops to the point of driving the farmers to suicide, just so he could point to a line going up on a chart in a meeting with investors?

No, it's more likely to be a vague, emotional impulse for "more", without the bureaucratic apparatus to enforce it in a way that is fundamentally incompatible with human life.

Capitalism demands constant growth in ways and for reasons that are different from any other hierarchy.

[v_london]

This is literally what King Leopold II of Belgium did in Congo.

[chalst]

Companies do differ. Not a high proportion of people are fortunate enough to work for a successful worker's co-op, but there the forces you describe take a quite different shape.

Even in a capitalist-owned firm, enlightened self-interest can lead to decent management practice.