[scarface74]

Name one for profit company that has any other goal besides profit?

Do you apply your moralistic stance to the second order derivative? Will you refuse to work for a company that is hosted on one of those companies? That advertises on one of those companies? Will you try to get your company to block Google from searching?

Do you think YCombinator funds companies for any other reason than for profits?

A companies goal is to make a profit. If you are concerned about the greater good, encourage your government to tax the corporations and implement programs to help people.

[avmich]

> Name one for profit company that has any other goal besides profit?

From the top of my head - Costco has a reputation of being a better place to work in. I may be mistaken, bring your points if you want. Costco doesn't nearly have the position on its market comparable to, say, Google's, so it's a good example of the company which has to - and does - care more about society it's in.

> Do you apply your moralistic stance to the second order derivative?

No I don't. I do breathe the same air as currently alive criminals, for example.

> Will you try to get your company to block Google from searching?

If I get to define technical policies in a company, e.g. make a startup I'll try. I'm optimistic that it's doable.

> Do you think YCombinator funds companies for any other reason than for profits?

I think there are reasons that YCombinator funds companies for other reasons too, yes.

> A companies goal is to make a profit. If you are concerned about the greater good, encourage your government to tax the corporations and implement programs to help people.

I believe it's a simplistic approach. Following the "letter" of the idea "bring benefits to shareholders" usually assumes "short-term benefits". Here's the contradiction.

[closeparen]

Few industries have had more deleterious impact on American society than big box retail. Tobacco, maybe.

I would much rather take responsibility for Facebook than for the hellscape of parking lots and chain stores that dominate the environment around any home worth less than a million dollars.

[usednet]

How do you suggest lower and middle income people purchase their necessities? You can’t feed 330 million people through farm-to-table distribution. That’s not to say they can’t be improved on.

[scarface74]

How do you suggest that lower and middle class people find stuff on the internet (Google) or can afford phones (Android)? How do you suggest small companies take advantage of a global distribution network and unknown authors get their books published (Amazon)? Who has done more to commoditize computers to make them affordable than Microsoft and Google? Amazon raising wages to $18/hour lifted wages for everyone. Yes the “evil monopolies” have done good also.

I purposefully left out Facebook. I don’t see how they have been a net good for society. I also left our Apple, since they don’t focus on the “lower and middle income”.

[DukeBaset]

What I wonder is why do poor wage slavers like you enjoy tounging the boot so much?

[scarface74]

Well, three responses:

1. I have an addiction to food and shelter and my parents seem to have a problem taking care of someone who is almost 50.

2. According to DQYDJ, I’m in the 97th percentile of income earners [1]. I am not bragging, a college grad 5 years out of school would be too as an SDE2 at any major tech company.

3. Are you independently wealthy or do you also exchange labor for money?

[1] https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

[closeparen]

Walkable communities. Main Street. Local independent stores.

[baash05]

I second that.

I've worked for many companies whose goal was not to make a profit, but instead to make the world better for one group of people.

They did profit, but that was really just so they could afford to continue to help their target audience.

I've never really understood the anger toward share holders. Most people have a pension, and that's invested in the stock market. When people say "share holders" I think of teachers pensions, and nurses pensions, my welders-widow grand mother. The "share holders" are people.

RE tax.. I can't think of a better way to light money on fire. Australia recently spent nearly 100million on a Covid safe app that tracked people. It was an utter flop, and I'm not sure it tacked down even one person. 100 Million $ on a 100% predictable flop.

[scarface74]

Did your company have VC backers? I guarantee you that they were concerned about profits over everything else.

What specifically did the companies you held in such high regards do that caused them to forego profit?

[scarface74]

Have you thought that company’s “treat their employees better” because retention has bottom line benefits?

None of the major tech companies got there by worrying only short term benefits.

Did you chose computer science over something like social work for the monetary benefits?

[yunohn]

> Costco has a reputation of being a better place to work in

This shifts the goalposts towards “good place to work in”, which I would say large companies like FAANG easily qualify for.

However, this is exactly the problem. The press and social media love dunking on tech companies, so we collectively forgot about all the other industries.

If we go back to the initial concern of morality, are you claiming Costco doesn’t care about profit, has a fully ethical supply chain, pays all levels of workers fairly, treat customers fairly, etc?

This is rhetorical btw, since literally no company in our globalised capitalist world can fulfil these goals. They can only virtue-signal while committing atrocities…

[avmich]

>> Costco has a reputation of being a better place to work in

> This shifts the goalposts towards “good place to work in”, which I would say large companies like FAANG easily qualify for.

This takes my words out of context.

[refurb]

Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster: All right this has gone on long enough. Juan Tripp is a great American. His airline has advanced the cause of commercial aviation in this country for decades. Juan Tripp is a patriot. Juan Tripp is not a man who's interested in making money.

Howard Hughes: Well, I'm sure his stockholders would be happy to hear that.

[Everybody starts laughing]