This was inevitable. It’s already the de facto direction in most companies. Nobody can seriously run an already high-risk business while also seriously pursuing a big tent political agenda of any sort. And energy wasted on political theater serves neither business nor politics.https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1310301482101563392 …
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There’s really only one kind of political action that belongs within business missions: climate action. And that’s because states simply lack both the knowledge and agency to decarbonize complex technological systems. Everything else is a drag that businesses are bad at.
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I’m a pretty narrow climate hawk. Big tent actions around carbon don’t work. But narrow efforts have a shot. If your business is high carbon, work on that. Otherwise get on with building wealth and minimizing negative externalities. You don’t have to be a saint, OR an asshole.
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So trawling through the backstory this appears to be about a threatened walkout over wanting the company to issue a statement over George Floyd. Personally I suspect coerced business PR statements are probably a net negative for such events. Theater replacing meaningful action.
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The scope creep of such social responsibility only ever goes up, never down. And because it solve the actual problem , it’s an accumulating deadweight loss tax. In heavily regulated economies this leads to social/political staffing bloat. In competitive ones, it kills companies.
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Businesses are not the tools for solving most political problems. Tax them more, solve problems with tax $. Flip the economics. If you had a million dollars to address structural injustice in policing, would you use it to fund tax breaks to companies in return for PR statements??
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I wonder if this is also a mutation of celebrity. Businesses have become celebrities and celebrities must side with me in the culture war because I’ve mistaken visibility of opinion in media for the power to solve problems.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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