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<blockquote data-quote="Kannik" data-source="post: 9667527" data-attributes="member: 984">If I may go a bit tangentially from the thread topic, I invite us all to step away from repeating this mantra.&nbsp; Because the purpose of a company is to produce a good or service that is of value to the community while earning those who provide that good or service a decent living.And I get why the &quot;make money&quot; mantra sticks around, because it kind of feels right, doesn't it?&nbsp; A company that constantly loses money goes out of business (certain grifts notwithstanding).&nbsp; But we ought to beware of creating a &quot;false opposite&quot; and turn that into that a company must think about, and almost only about, maximizing its profit at every turn.&nbsp; And thus exploit, shank, fleece, degrade, etc its customers, employees, the environment, the community, and everything else at every turn.&nbsp; It does not.&nbsp; It only needs to sustain itself (though a company with planned obsolescence isn't a bad thing either).&nbsp; If a company is in business for 50 years and financially breaks even every single year while providing a solid living for its employees, it’s doing great.&nbsp; Will it be on the cover of a magazine?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; But it's a successful and long running company that makes its customers happy and provides for its employees.&nbsp; Above all, I invite us to cease invoking that mantra as an excuse for a company's actions.&nbsp; In the &quot;well they have to&quot; kind of way.&nbsp; In the &quot;yeah, it's poisoning millions of people a year, but it's in pursuit of money/profit, so it's all good&quot; kind of way.&nbsp; No.&nbsp; It's not a primal force like gravity.&nbsp; These are choices made by people, with results and outcomes that affect other people.&nbsp; And that's my invitation.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kannik, post: 9667527, member: 984"] If I may go a bit tangentially from the thread topic, I invite us all to step away from repeating this mantra. Because the purpose of a company is to produce a good or service that is of value to the community while earning those who provide that good or service a decent living. And I get why the "make money" mantra sticks around, because it kind of feels right, doesn't it? A company that constantly loses money goes out of business (certain grifts notwithstanding). But we ought to beware of creating a "false opposite" and turn that into that a company must think about, and almost only about, maximizing its profit at every turn. And thus exploit, shank, fleece, degrade, etc its customers, employees, the environment, the community, and everything else at every turn. It does not. It only needs to sustain itself (though a company with planned obsolescence isn't a bad thing either). If a company is in business for 50 years and financially breaks even every single year while providing a solid living for its employees, it’s doing great. Will it be on the cover of a magazine? No. But it's a successful and long running company that makes its customers happy and provides for its employees. Above all, I invite us to cease invoking that mantra as an excuse for a company's actions. In the "well they [I]have [/I]to" kind of way. In the "yeah, it's poisoning millions of people a year, but it's in pursuit of money/profit, so it's all good" kind of way. No. It's not a primal force like gravity. These are choices made by people, with results and outcomes that affect other people. And that's my invitation. :) [/QUOTE]

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