If corporations were people, we’d consider them psychopaths… and maybe that’s ok?
#MillennialMoney
I remember being completely fascinated by money growing up. Having money was like having a super power. Give the cashier a $5 bill and he’d return with two McChickens and change. Magic.
The sweet taste of breaded chicken was really only a quick taste of understanding how money actually moves the world.
Act 1 —The Amoral Corporation
But money doesn’t necessarily have to move the world. It’s just that the economic system that we selected is focused on maximizing profit, and so money does move the world. We could have chosen a system that maximized equality (communism) or a system that maximized for social welfare (socialism).
We all know that with each system there are pros and cons. With capitalism however, the biggest drawback is when you optimize for money, it often incentivizes bad behavior. If McDonald’s knew that making the McChicken greasier would increase profit but also contribute to thousands of heart attacks, it would still make it greasier. And if it knew that adding more sugar to their shakes would increase profit but cause a 56 year old man in NYC to develop diabetes, it would still make it sweeter. Now it’s not that McDonald’s is immoral, it’s really that it’s amoral. It’s not about what’s right and wrong, it’s about what will maximize profit.
“When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”
― Shirley Chisholm
The reality is that incentives aren’t really aligned for corporations to act any other way. It’s not necessary to be “evil” but shareholders demanding exponential growth often incentivize bad behavior. Now some of this can be mitigated by structuring companies so that employees (and maybe even customers) own the company. However, if a company doesn’t maximize profit on some level though, it will cease to exist simply because it will be out-competed by another company. It’s not a matter of ethics or anything else. There’s simply no choice to be made.
“The business of business is business” — Milton Friedman
What holds companies back from pursing money at all costs are two factors: laws and social norms. Coca Cola doesn’t lace all their drinks with cocaine (not anymore at least), because it would be illegal. And social norms prevent them from producing insanely unhealthy drinks.**
**In fact, Coca Cola loves marketing their drinks as healthy. “Original taste, without the sugar.” In reality, it’s actually most profitable to: pretend you’re an unusually ethical company while still being ruthlessly profit-seeking.
Act 2 —The Pleasure-Seeking Consumer
But it’s not necessarily that the company is the only one to blame for any bad outcomes. Whereas companies often seek to maximize profit, people often seek to maximize pleasure. And in seeking pleasure there are ethical tradeoffs that need to be made. Would you buy a Mcdonald’s burger made from ethically sourced beef for $2? How about $10? How about $100?
The truth is, there is a price on everyone’s morals.
Act 3 — The Well-Intentioned Worker
Unlike corporations themselves, the people who make up a corporation are moral and have thoughts and feelings of their own. They’re also often well-intentioned. But despite this, the expectations set by leadership can make moral people do amoral things... Do you want to keep your job or hurt quarterly numbers?
So I’m a moral conscientious worker, how do I know which companies are good and bad? The answer is tricky. Humans are complex and companies are even more complex — they are after-all built of humans stacked on humans.
Let’s take Uber as a case study. People critique Uber for basically tricking poor people to work for a lower wage than they advertise, without minimum wage or health insurance, all the while taking on all the risk and cost associated with providing a vehicle to drive in. They lobby to overturn any legislation that would protect workers and have the infamous sexual harassment case from a couple of years back.
At the same time however, millions of users prefer Uber instead of using a taxi or any other service. Honestly it’s just so cheap and it just feels like it’s not my job to police Uber’s actions. It’s difficult to say whether they are a net good or bad for-profit company. But does Uber count as “for profit” anyways? Heyo ;)
But there are other corporations that do a better job. Costco treats its staff and employees better than any of their competitors. Do they do it for better employees and brand? Perhaps. Is it bad if it’s good for the bottom line and the employees? Definitely not.
Finally, I think it’s too reductive to say whether something is purely good or bad. All companies have good and bad patches. Before Zuckerberg’s Facebook became the vampiric squid on the face of American politics, they were the beloved social network. But often, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
So are these CEO’s less moral than we are? It’s honestly hard to say. Maybe you’re evil too but just haven’t gotten the chance to be tested.
Final Thoughts
Life has different colors. Google firing an AI researcher doesn’t mean that overall they didn’t benefit humankind. Remember it comes down to this, in which company, do you personally make the largest net positive impact on society?
When I worked at DoorDash, there was a principle called “AND not OR”. It meant when faced with two problems, find a way to solve both of them. So when we step back from our work, we should ask ourselves: “Does this maximize profit AND does it also do right by the stakeholders in the business? OR does it just help the bottom line?”
