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by 20after4 853 days ago
It's the very definition of selling out. This seems to be a very common trend with the vast majority of all previously respected institutions (at least in the USA). They have all sold out (literally sold the company, in many cases) and have now abandoned all principles (or pretenses) of decency and provision of value to customers. Now they are just trading on past integrity that is no longer reality. They will coast on their dwindling reputations for as long as they can get away with it.

The attitude is "Fuck you, pay me." but wrapped in massive amounts of PR spin in an attempt to obfuscate the realty and deflect the blame.
2 comments
nicbou 853 days ago
"Trading on past integrity" is a really nice expression. I was struggling to explain my feeling that "everything is a brand now", and this is it.

Everything that has a good reputation gets financialized and run into the ground, then the shareholders move on.

Buying anything has become a game of "has that already turned to crap".

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hypocrticalCons 853 days ago
> just trading

When Americans understand stockbuybacks should be illegal, that the entire stock market is a game played by monsters, then maybe, maybe you'll fix your shit

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yCombLinks 853 days ago
Stock buybacks are just a tax advantaged dividend. Why would anyone invest in a company if there isn't some way to turn that into a profit?
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mavelikara 852 days ago
How does society at large benefit from providing tax advantages to those profits to investors?
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