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I'm not going to downvote you because I disagree, but agreeable people like you are why we as a society are where we are.

Excusing misconduct with excuses like "oh, they are just executives acting rationally in their shareholders best interests" is a moral hazard and despicable position.

Just the notion that we're casually comparing and excusing away mercenaries & war criminals and contrasting it to a telecom company is disgusting.



And how are we as a society, exactly?

I didn't say anything about war criminals. That's a different thread. I said something about executives in boardrooms. I'm saying that these execs could give a damn about what they're selling, only that they sell lots of it.

This is a microcosm of society, perhaps, but my commentary was about capitalism.


Capitalism isn't the be all and end all of an open society. The fact that it's socially acceptable that an executive at a company like Blackwater can be compared to any other businessman is a problem. (In the specific case of Blackwater, they are well known enough to perhaps be an exception.)

Being a war profiteer, leader of old-style trust that exploits its customers or a peddler of political corruption isn't rationality -- it's an anti-pattern of capitalism.


You're right that it is an anti-pattern of capitalism. However it is possible for an anti-pattern to be completely rational, while having horrible consequences, given the way the system is set up. The consequences might be more clearly unacceptable when you see it with Blackwater, but exactly the same perverse incentives are driving every company.


But the point is that they are. This is what the market demands.

If you don't like it, you need a non-capitalist alternative i.e. municipal broadband.




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