I wanna surface this to my main timeline because it's kinda important to say out loud from time to time:
Businesses do NOT "have to" focus exclusively on their return to shareholders. Not legally, not morally.
That is the misguided OPINION of a 1970 essay by Milton Friedman, and the fact that everyone seemed to just hop on board that opinion is a significant reason why we switched gears into hyper-hell-capitaliam since then.
Push back on this every time you see it.
No one in business actually believes this: it's a convenient excuse for short-term looting that enriches management
@RichPuchalsky Yeah, and therein lies the problem, I'd say. The fact that it's so widely believed means that they can in fact perform this looting and not just get away with it, but be lauded as business geniuses.
Whereas if we didn't, societally, buy into the lie, they'd be strung up (though likely just figuratively) and ostracized (definitely literally).
Dan Hulton
Rich Puchalsky 