[Wolfenstein98k]

Disagree. Profit is not the same as greed, and corporations regularly make decisions that are not profitably in the short or long term.

Look at the rise in DEI! As soon as rates went up, a lot of that started getting cut. That strongly suggests it was an unprofitable decision. So why was it made?

[Draiken]

Because it was a good marketing stunt and they believed it would increase profits in the long term by hiring/keeping people that cared about that. Also, I wouldn't discount the fact that there's a lot of cargo cult induced decisions everywhere. But as soon as profits get hit, companies will correct course.

I don't think companies are perfect at optimizing for their profits (thankfully), but profit is and will always be their only driver for decisions.

A good example is how Google seemingly spoiled their employees with benefits and high pay. Their objective was to hoard talent so they could continue to grow their profits. It's not because they are thinking of the well being of their employees. As soon as they weren't growing as much, they had mass layoffs.

The only way a company isn't optimizing for profits is if it's smaller with owners that personally want to prioritize something else at the cost of profits. Which, in theory, means they will go out of business at some point because of being undercut by their competitors that don't care.

Companies are abstract entities that only serve one purpose: to make profit. Every single action is towards this goal. They are NOT people. Even the people behind them make decisions that they would never do individually but, behind the facade of a "company decision", they nevertheless do.

> Profit is not the same as greed

Greed is defined as:

  An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth

For me that's basically the definition of a company's purpose. If companies only generated enough profits to survive, we wouldn't live in the world we live in today. Numbers must go up!