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Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

nytimes.com

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Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#31

Post by chris_mc »

ucaetano wrote: post #22
rajuvegesna wrote: post #5

Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. It is like a treadmill that keeps increasing speed. If you slow down, you are thrown out. If consecutive quarterly results are not good, CEO is typically thrown out. This pressure forces management to make unnatural decisions that might help short-t…

> Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. Hey, feel free to invest your retirement savings in a company that doesn't grow profits year after year, I'm sure you'll do great!

>invest your retirement savings

We would need to rework the whole system if we threw out the "constant growth" method of running a company. If we take care of the people so they don't have to worry about saving for retirement, it's possible to redesign the economy in this way and our goals as a society.

You obviously can't change one major axiom of the US economy without revisiting the remaining axioms!

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#33

Post by joejerryronnie »

noreddit323 wrote: post #12
IBM wrote: post #6

Brian Acton or anyone else feeling guilty about their ad-tech wealth: use your winnings to lobby for a federal privacy bill that is as strong and comprehensive as GDPR (and other EU privacy regulations). The industry is moving to enact something that maintains the status quo [1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/technology/tech-industry-...

Why the sudden concern over tech companies mining our habits? Advertisers have been doing it for years, using government funded research in military propaganda that made it's way into universities after WW2 as marketing and journalism programs. This rhetoric is something like "Kill this particular witch!" without questioning whether the belief we hold on how the world works is rational. EDIT: let me re-state: Why is…

Two reasons:

1) The misperception that everyone in Silicon Valley is wealthy beyond their wildest dreams while the rest of the country is struggling.

2) Trump was elected instead of Hillary

A very small minority have valid concerns over privacy and the reach of the tech giants, for everyone else, it's simple politics.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#34

Post by Pica_soO »

bilbo0s wrote: post #7

I actually applaud Poulson for leaving Google in protest of Google's Chinese business practices. Having mentioned that, I think I have to part ways with him when he implies that the correct way to "fix" this is to have the government come in and make these sorts of business decisions for the company. I don't believe in the government obliging businesses to do things. Especially when it looks like this whole thing is…

Eh, yes, but the chinese government allready came in, played favourites, everything is already messed up?

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#35

Post by stale2002 »

rajuvegesna wrote: post #5

Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. It is like a treadmill that keeps increasing speed. If you slow down, you are thrown out. If consecutive quarterly results are not good, CEO is typically thrown out. This pressure forces management to make unnatural decisions that might help short-t…

> Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year.

This is not true at all.

There are lots of companies out there that make a profit, and return those profits to shareholders via dividends.

If google wants to just continue making profits, they can just do that, and send that money back to the shareholders/owners, just like most every other company out there.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#36

Post by pixelbath »

ucaetano wrote: post #22
rajuvegesna wrote: post #5

Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. It is like a treadmill that keeps increasing speed. If you slow down, you are thrown out. If consecutive quarterly results are not good, CEO is typically thrown out. This pressure forces management to make unnatural decisions that might help short-t…

> Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. Hey, feel free to invest your retirement savings in a company that doesn't grow profits year after year, I'm sure you'll do great!

Not all companies exist solely as an investment vehicle.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#37

Post by kodablah »

ucaetano wrote: post #22
rajuvegesna wrote: post #5

Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. It is like a treadmill that keeps increasing speed. If you slow down, you are thrown out. If consecutive quarterly results are not good, CEO is typically thrown out. This pressure forces management to make unnatural decisions that might help short-t…

> Fundamental issue is the expectation that all public companies must keep growing and show profits quarter after quarter, year after year. This is obviously unsustainable. Hey, feel free to invest your retirement savings in a company that doesn't grow profits year after year, I'm sure you'll do great!

Many do and many don't grow profits but rather sustain profits year after year, and they do great.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#38

Post by qubax »

jostmey wrote: post #2

My take in the issue is that Google is being mismanaged. China will not allow a foreign company to compete against its home grown search engines, so why bother? By bowing to Chinese censorship, Google hurts its public image. Google's management should have expected that its employees, who joined Google on the premise of "Do not evil", would leak this to the public. In short, the people at the top of Google look like…

> China will not allow a foreign company to compete against its home grown search engines, so why bother?

No. China will let a foreign company compete against its home grown search engines under its own terms. There's no way we'd let a chinese company take over search in the US. Why should they allow an american search engine take over?

> By bowing to Chinese censorship, Google hurts its public image.

Google has bowed down to european and american censorship. What difference does it make if they bow to chinese censorship? You don't seem outraged at google censoring in the US and Europe.

> In short, the people at the top of Google look like fools to me.

Yeah. The multibillionaires look real foolish with their multibillions in the bank. Google execs don't care what employees think. It's not their job. They work for the shareholders, not their employees. Considering how well google's stock have been doing, it doesn't seem like shareholders are too shaken up about google getting back in china.

The faux moralizing is getting ridiculous. Especially when a significant portion of people on HN are demanding more censorship at home.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#39

Post by icebraining »

gowld wrote: post #21
IBM wrote: post #6

Brian Acton or anyone else feeling guilty about their ad-tech wealth: use your winnings to lobby for a federal privacy bill that is as strong and comprehensive as GDPR (and other EU privacy regulations). The industry is moving to enact something that maintains the status quo [1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/technology/tech-industry-...

The article is abouta proposal that the US reglate how Google operates in China, quite different from the EU GDPR, which only applies to companies' treatment of EU residents.

No, for EU companies, the GDPR applies to all their users worldwide, not just EU residents.

Re: Ex-Google Employee Urges Lawmakers to Take on Company

#40

Post by Aunche »

Yet another white American who thinks that thinks that their personal moral grievances are more important than a billion Chinese people gaining access to Google. This is even worse than men telling women that abortion is evil because at least men can claim to speak for the fetus. I've yet to hear a convincing argument that Dragonfly make the lives of Chinese dissidents any worse, let alone regular residents.
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