As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

I have this pet theory that every company that becomes publicly traded on financial markets becomes "evil" because the focus is taken away from customers, and towards keeping shareholders happy. Let's hope I'm not proved wrong, again.

They still hire bad drivers.

Going public, they can get better at respecting local laws and regulations, and still sacrifice their customers (and of course employees) at the altar of their shareholders. (At least that is what I read the Op is saying).

I do wonder in the new age of increasingly automated employer-contractor relations, if “hire” is the right word.

How is that “evil”? Isn’t that the crystallization of the teleological purpose of a company?

The ideal company works to maximize shareholder value. And not just short-term value, but the amortized value of the company in perpuitity. This in turn maximizes employee value and customer value.

Let’s take a company that has great products and gives away everything for free. In the short-term, this might look like maximizing customer value, but soon, the conpany will go out of business. You could construct a similar example in which employee wages were maximized.

The ideal situation is that the company pays employees as little as possible and charges customers as much as possible. In this way, the company is on the efficient frontier. Companies then compete on employee wages and product cost. This creates a Nash equilibrium in which no party can benefit from doing anything differently.

This is the highest and most noble calling of the markets and creates the abundent and efficient markets of today (unless of course, the government steps in to fuck everything up).

PS: I know I am going to get downvoted, but I would appreciate a comment instead of a downvote.