| No, a company's first and foremost interest is not profit for the shareholder. Corporations don't have interests. They're abstractions -- ways of organizing people to be productive members of society. Individuals within those corporations have interests. If you look at a company as if it were a sentient human, you'll get to the wrong conclusions. There is no moral imperative for a company to survive. There's a moral imperative to make sure everyone has gainful, productive employment, healthy levels of stress, etc. If you're at Google, and you can work on: (1) an advertising user-profiling technology with no social benefit but contribution to Google's bottom line (2) a civics-focused open-source project with no benefit to shareholder value, but significant value to society Which would you pick? If you're at Enron pre-scandal, and can either: (1) successfully cover up evidence to prevent the scandal; or (2) blow the whistle Which do you pick? That's where the moral imperative sits. These things are much more complex with a partner. There's a moral imperative not to betray your partner, as well as one to not support immoral actions, and some balance. With corporations, there is no such moral imperative. If an unethically-organized corporation dies, and resources move into ethically-organized ones, the world is better off. |