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by seanmcdirmid 1657 days ago
My point was that if Apple didn't adhere to maximizing profits, they simply wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be talking about their behavior in China. Regardless of whether you are a libertarian or not, you are wagging your finger at the wrong party (or to say, the party isn't really in a position to fix things). If you want change, it has to be via whoever is setting/enforcing the rules (in our case, government). The USA, ironically unlike China, doesn't really have the framework to force companies to adhere to some kind of moral code (outside of national security, etc...).

And even if we go down that rabbit hole, we just become more like China with some kind of state mandated moral code that can be easily perverted...maybe we can't really win on this.
2 comments
stale2002 1657 days ago
Yeah they would exist.

Lots of companies are able to exist without giving in to completely silly demands like "increase the size of these islands".

> If you want change

Actually, customers are able to cause lots of economic damages to companies, or their employees.

There is more that one way to Target Apple employees than what you suggested.

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seanmcdirmid 1656 days ago
For example?
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stale2002 1655 days ago
Well, for example, people and companies could target any of the employees directly, who work on those kinds of deals.

Target them personally, make them personally responsible for the actions that they did while thinking that they were some faceless entity in the machine, and make them toxic entities to hire or work with.

Sure, the company itself might be able to insulate itself from consequences, but not the individuals themselves. It would make people think twice about the actual negative effects of their actions, if they knew it would put them on blacklists.

Companies are run by people. It is not some faceless AI. Instead, decisions are made by individuals. And individuals are vulnerable.

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Eelongate 1657 days ago
All of that is completely irrelevant to my point, which is that fiduciary duty does not compel Apple to do business with China. You were peddling a falsehood.
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