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WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

time.com

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Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#11

Post by intended »

meowface wrote: post #5
exabrial wrote: post #2

Ok, they're a private company, they can do what they want. If you don't like it, don't work there. But, really......

Like it or not, this is the side of history that will eventually win out. In 50-100 years from now, expect this kind of arrangement to be very common with American companies.

I doubt it. Unless lab grown meat manages to be a competitor, people are going to get meat based protein.

And have you seen the vast variety of food around the world made from meat?

It’s like saying people will give up excel. Possible, but only if some very major hurdles are crossed.

Otherwise ubiquity, biological, and cultural adaptation will win out.

The vegetarian side is underestimating the scope and time scale required.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#12

Post by ahelwer »

Nice. If you care at all about moral justifications for your own actions, eating meat is an extremely difficult position to defend. It even falls on the wrong side of the Kantian perfect/imperfect duty divide, since the default really is not eating meat, so eating meat is a positive action which must be justified. I think it's a great example of philosophy pointing out the absurdity of a (very) widely-practiced phenomenon.

Of course, there's always the perpetual ethical get-out-of-jail-free card of doubting the existence of any finite set of values (articulated in our imprecise, incomplete, informal language) which could inform all our actions in this staggeringly-complex world, plus the impossibility-in-principle of living consistent with those values ;)

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#13

Post by 1_800_UNICORN »

On one hand, this seems like a very heavy-handed move considering today's societal ubiquity of meat.

On the other hand, I believe that in 100 years we'll look at today as the dark ages in terms of the scale of our industrial meat production.

So, I'm cautiously curious to see if other companies follow suit or not.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#14

Post by kozikow »

I and a few of my past co-workers have been suspecting that the facilities team in a big tech company I used to work for had an evil genius plan to reduce costs:

1. Pick the most popular snack (e.g. nachos)

2. Replace it with less tasty alternative (e.g. kale chips) "for your health"

3. Consumption is a few times smaller

4. The company can claim they take better care of their workers and no one can accuse them of being stingy

5. Finance team high-fives each other

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#16

Post by stephengillie »

Odd to see this paragraph in the middle - it has no relation to anything else in the article, and the 2 points don't relate to each other - beyond the theme of companies banning things:

> American Airlines Group Inc. and Starbucks Corp. recently joined the chorus of companies pledging to phase out plastic straws and drink stirrers. And Southwest Airlines Co., in a bid to reduce allergy risk, said this week peanuts will no longer be available on flights starting Aug. 1.

As far as I'm aware, meat-based meal options are available from both airlines and the restaurant.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#17

Post by [deleted] »

jp_sc wrote: post #8
meowface wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, this is the side of history that will eventually win out. In 50-100 years from now, expect this kind of arrangement to be very common with American companies.

I believe sintetic meat will be the most common in 50-100 years, so I don't think so.

[deleted]

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#18

Post by meowface »

nwah1 wrote: post #10
meowface wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, this is the side of history that will eventually win out. In 50-100 years from now, expect this kind of arrangement to be very common with American companies.

And not because of environmental concerns. But moral concerns. Something that is flagrantly immoral would be opposed regardless of environmental questions. That is important to note because it is not a simple question whether meat is net positive or net negative for the environment. It isn't even clear what it means if something is net positive for the environment. This is a moral issue, not an eco issue.

I completely agree. The primary reason to not eat meat is that it's inherently unethical (factory farm or not). But a lot of people don't feel that way, so any argument that will persuade them to eat less (or no) meat works in my book.
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