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folstar t1_j5zxaar wrote

I think they were making a valid point, albeit somewhat poorly and unnecessarily rude.

You said "It's not an issue that companies exist to make shareholders money"

Then followed with a list of things you wish companies would do that are not making shareholders money. You could put a million things on that list (where I think the "superfluorsly expanded on" comment originated) and it won't change that none of those are making shareholders money. Maybe those items sometimes align with making money, but that is unlikely allies at best.

If you really want those things, then it IS an issue that companies exist to make shareholders money.

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1800TurdFerguson t1_j6019hi wrote

I’m not sure whether your comment about being unnecessarily rude was directed at me or at vegdeg, but I think it’s high time we put Friedman’s thoughts on shareholder value in the same grave he inhabits. It’s an incredibly short-sighted and unsustainable ideal, and as an economic theory it’s been shown to be increasingly unworkable. The pendulum between regulation and deregulation has swung back and forth throughout American history, but never has corporate America been better positioned to halt the swing of the pendulum back into a more restrictive position. The American public is by and large unable to do anything to stop the incessant extraction of value from them by corporations and the financial markets.

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folstar t1_j603ztx wrote

>It’s an incredibly short-sighted and unsustainable ideal

RAmen, but that's how the system works.

Maybe in the 2060s we'll have a POTUS willing to take on the system who gets shot in the head for totally unrelated reasons.

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1800TurdFerguson t1_j63gjt9 wrote

Ramen is what I’m going to say at the end the next time I have to join a prayer. Thanks for that laugh.

I predict we’ll have AI’s of famous jurists duking it out on SCOTUS by the 2060. We’ll have Scalia and RBG going at it again, with Berger and Powell trying to build a consensus.

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