Thread: "The Pirate's Dilemma" - free e-book
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Old 06-10-2008, 05:30 PM   #51
Walk Broad
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pieter View Post
Uhm if I suddenly say that my only goal is to make as much money as a I can does that suddenly stop me being morally responsible? Where is that big moral rule that businesses can't be held morally responsible, just because somebody said their only goal is to make money? Is that part of the same set of dogmas as intellectual property? Businesses are run by people. Actually they are nothing else. Not some mystical entity. And those people have moral obligations when they way they make money means people are dying.

If a medical company has the opportunity to help save thousands of lives, how is that not their moral obligation? Because of intellectual property? Making money is not some God given right even when it means people are dying because you need to make money. Neither is intellectual property a God given right as a necessary tool for a business to keep making money while people are dying.

And you have no idea what I've given for people in Africa, but that doesn't change this medical company's moral obligations. People are dying and we let them in the name of intellectual property. I blame intellectual property for making us ignore Africa. For making us able to hide behind it.
I'm not saying the system is perfect, but you really need to see the excellent documentary called "The Corporation".

Corporations really are soulless, money grubbing, amoral entities legally created to remove the moral ambiguity of pursuing profit above anything else.

That's why they have nameless, and often faceless, people called stock holders. The corporations sole purpose is to provide a return of investment to stock holders, in fact, in the US, it is a legal requirement.

Once you come to that undestanding, then companies that are the exception to the rule are the ones you can focus to give your support.

It's like the old story about the snake that finally bites the man after the man has helped him: "Well, you knew I was a snake all along. Why are you surprised now that I've bitten and poisoned you?'
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