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1. hungry+(OP)[view] [source] 2026-02-04 21:10:41
>Companies, not begin sentient, don't have values, only their leaders/employees do

Isn't that a distinction without a difference? Every real world company has employees, and those people do have values (well, except the psychopaths).

replies(1): >>Lanzaa+yt
2. Lanzaa+yt[view] [source] 2026-02-04 23:53:55
>>hungry+(OP)
I think there are two key imperatives that lead to company "psychopathy".

The first imperative is a company must survive past its employees. A company is an explicit legal structure designed to survive past the initial people in the company. A company is _not_ the employees, it is what survives past the employees' employment.

The second imperative is the diffusion of responsibility. A company becomes the responsible party for actions taken, not individual employees. This is part of the reason we allow companies to survive past employees, because their obligations survive as well.

This leads to individual employees taking actions for the company against their own moral code for the good of the company.

See also The Corporation (2003 film) and Meditations On Moloch (2014)[0].

[0] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

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