Funny thought

[bobhikes]

Was thinking about a debate I'm in. What would happen if we deregulated all companies and allowed them to be their own moral adviser.

I'm sitting on the couch with my two boys and we turn on seasame street. There's elmo bright red and furry. Lets learn our A B C's. He turns takes a drag on a cigarette and puffs out an A then a B then a C, with his free hand he picks up a beer to quench his thirst and continues Drag on the cigarette D, E, F.


Its so sick its funny. Anybody else. What could you imagine if companies where their own moral compass.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I imagine it would be pretty much like it is now, with companies utilizing marketing to maximize their sales by appealing to people in the confines of conventional and current societal mores and values.

I imagine a children's show which portrayed puppets smoking would be taken off the air, and whoever came up with such a stupid idea would be fired.

However, it's fun to imagine worlds very different from our own.

 

[Father Heathen]

Was thinking about a debate I'm in. What would happen if we deregulated all companies and allowed them to be their own moral adviser.

I'm sitting on the couch with my two boys and we turn on seasame street. There's elmo bright red and furry. Lets learn our A B C's. He turns takes a drag on a cigarette and puffs out an A then a B then a C, with his free hand he picks up a beer to quench his thirst and continues Drag on the cigarette D, E, F.


Its so sick its funny. Anybody else. What could you imagine if companies where their own moral compass.

With maximized prophet being the sole agenda, it wouldn't be pretty.

 

[0zyzzyz0]

Isn't that what the libertarians want?

 

[Father Heathen]

Isn't that what the libertarians want?

Pretty much. Libertarianism sounds good in theory (I used to be one), but it places too much trust in your fellow man, which history shows to be foolhardy.

 

[Valjean]

By "own moral adviser" I'm assuming you're asking what would happen in an unregulated, laissez-faire economy.
No question here, just look at history. We'd get predation, theft and monopoly. We'd have expensive, poor quality, dangerous goods and services

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

With maximized prophet being the sole agenda, it wouldn't be pretty.

Fun fact: there have been a few cases where companies took a different approach and were ordered by the courts to change it to be entirely profit-focused. I don't remember all the details, but apparently, it's a requirement of law in the United States that maximization of profit is the only allowable goal for a public corporation.

It seems there's some latitude about whether that can be short-term vs. long-term profit, and how a corporation can treat risk, but if a public corporation wants to explicitly divide their focus between, say, generating profit and providing social benefit, it's apparently illegal.

Pretty much. Libertarianism sounds good in theory (I used to be one), but it places too much trust in your fellow man, which history shows to be foolhardy.

Yeah... IMO, the biggest problem with libertarianism is that the government isn't the only threat to a person's freedom; often, the threat is other people.

 

[Father Heathen]

By "own moral adviser" I'm assuming you're asking what would happen in an unregulated, laissez-faire economy.
No question here, just look at history. We'd get predation, theft and monopoly. We'd have expensive, poor quality, dangerous goods and services

Don't forget exploitation (sweatshops, human trafficking, child labor, slavery, etc.) and environmental disregard (pollution, deforestation, resource depletion, etc.)

 

[0zyzzyz0]

It's so nice that we're not slipping into cynical territory here.
%)
Soooo... It seems we're of a common suspicion that if left unchecked the natural order would be the proverbial law of the jungle. No wonder primitive peoples invented imaginary arbiters of justice and claimed moral authority for themselves as priest class interpreters/spokespersons for their claimed omnimagnificent overseer. Seems such a racket might even have been somewhat socially advantagious. Hmmm??? Surely it ain't so. Religion as a counter and denial of the real condition!!! Why... that would mean Mr Neitzsche was telling us.
so sad
I think i'll go take my unicorn for a walk. This reality realizing is too real for me.

 

[bobhikes]

It's so nice that we're not slipping into cynical territory here.
%)
Soooo... It seems we're of a common suspicion that if left unchecked the natural order would be the proverbial law of the jungle. No wonder primitive peoples invented imaginary arbiters of justice and claimed moral authority for themselves as priest class interpreters/spokespersons for their claimed omnimagnificent overseer. Seems such a racket might even have been somewhat socially advantagious. Hmmm??? Surely it ain't so. Religion as a counter and denial of the real condition!!! Why... that would mean Mr Neitzsche was telling us.
so sad
I think i'll go take my unicorn for a walk. This reality realizing is too real for me.

Not completely true and can I borrow the unicorn when your done. I find Unicorns very peaceful and thet help me relax. Human morals and corporate morals are not the same. Religion could be a response to collective morals (such as corporate or government). Human morals are first and foremost unique to the individual and typically protective of humans. Religious morals would not be necessary if all we had we human morals.

 

[0zyzzyz0]

Sure. You can take Horny for a walk some time. You have to remember though that you have an ethical responsibility to stoop and scoop. Be careful about it though. Horny can't seem to resist poking at upturned, unsuspecting backsides.
I suspect I know what your master plan is! Get seen strolling around with a unicorn and the girls and?or guys and?or whatever your preference seem to be drawn to you. It's a well known truth. They're a better attractor than puppies or babies.

Interesting other point. I'm not sure how there could be just individual morals as none of us seem to be isolated individuals. Our morality would seem to me to be contextual, an emergent, evolving, response to relationality. We can see morals and values at play even in the animals we keep company with, mythical or real. My dog, doG, has a profound sense of what he regards as fair. I have no doubt of that even after considering that I might be just anthropomorphising. His morality, like mine and i suspect everyone's individually and collectively, are derived symbiotically within the contexts of social/interactive relations.

Hope i understood you correctly.
0zy

 

[Valjean]

Maximizing profit as the Prime Directive of large corporations has resulted, by a sort of economic selection, in a large percentage of certifiable sociopaths in upper management, in my opinion.

 

[bobhikes]

Hope i understood you correctly.
0zy

Yes completely and an interesting reply.