Re: OT: Yahoo- apparently now an extension of the Chinese govt secret police....

[Michael Greb <michael () thegrebs com>]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 09:19:46AM +0100, Simon Waters wrote:
> On Thursday 08 Sep 2005 3:09 am, Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:
> > And when the corporate executives have a legal and moral obligation to
> > generate income for the stockholders (barring a stockholder's resolution
> > or other similar instrument dictating otherwise), what is one to do when
> > "vast profits" and "vast evil" lie in the same direction?
>
> Moralities aren't black and white, generating profits falls behind other legal 
> and moral obligations that apply to everyone.

Except, they don't in the United States corporations have a legal
obligation to put profits above all else.  They are legally forbidden to
put morality above profit.  These laws are severyly in need of some
adjustments.

> > Even Google, with it's "Don't Be Evil" policy
>
> Any influence Google's "Don't be Evil" policy had vanished the day it was 
> floated AFAICT.
>
> Where profits are put before morals that is called greed. Sure the 

No, that is following the law.

> stockmarkets allow people to put greedy people in charge of their money, but 
> be aware what goes around, comes around.
>
> HG Wells referred to people investing in the stockmarket as a purely financial 
> endevour for short term profits as "the irresponsibly wealthy" as far back as 
> 1902. Plus ça change.

Michael

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