“Be a force for Good”

Whose Good??I think Mike you misunderstood there..

“Be a force for Good” for Twitter – This is the real motto..

+1 – I love the post – Being a college student myself I get pretty tired of the self-righteous idealism, and it only makes it worse when well known companies parade the ridiculousness around.

Also, I am excited to get something from Ev’s appearance today other than bashing Haque or “Hack” or whatever his name is.

I totally agree. The self proclaimed righteousness should be left for good and companies march in the direction that is best for them. We all know this is business so stop talking about love for humanity and shit stuff. Make good stuff and let people use it for good. Humanity has lots of “goodness” left yet before it becomes a nice venture opportunity.

This is a real copycat move by Twitter. In an effort to differentiate ourselves, Wordnik.com is rebranding itself as “the evil dictionary.”

“Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society. ”

hahah… EPIC!!

I am of the belief that business can indeed make social change happen. So yes, do no evil is a valid ideology.. At the minimum it should remind the business of its great purpose when tempted to do worldly evil… Over here in Singapore you get many slogans like that.. “profit without ethics is just a figure” , “do no evil” , “dignified capitalism” are things you usually find here… Its OKay to be a little philosophical nah ? :) :)

I thought I banned Singapore IPs from this site. hm.

the second to last paragraph couldn’t be more true. unfortunately there are investors who are riding up twitter’s ass about expansion and growth (need. profits. now.) luckily they are private investors… so they hopefully know a little about long term investing which is why they should never go public (and I commend Zuckerburg / Facebook very much so for his adamancy about not doing so – twitter should certainly follow suit on this).

Right on the money Mike….Couldn’t agree more with “Let others use Twitter to do good things” statement.

You should provide a damn good service/product and whether or not it’s gonna be a MEANS for GOOD, will be mostly up to people using it.

There are some companies that pretend to act good like Twitter and Facebook and Google, but they’re really evil.

On the other hand, you have a company like dirtyphonebook.com that is outwardly evil but is actually a force for good in that forces people to do nice things to people or face real consequences.

Anyway, I’m just trying to figure out how chatroulette figures into all of this.

What I’d like to see is a company adopting a “Don’t Be Stupid” slogan instead. Arrington, if you can find a way to auction this one off to the highest bidder, we’ll split it 50/50.

I always thought twitter was doing good as they are.Hope they don’t change things and become “goodtwitter”

do you know that research show that Denmark is the world happiest country? we should tell them that socialism is not the way to run a country… maybe they should stop paying 90% of salary as unemployment benefit (for four years) and terminate their completely free healthcare system.

or they are confused, thinking that they are happy only because back in collage, they got laid plenty.

Twitter should stop being such panzies so afraid to make a mistake and release some real profit-generating features already. I did like with Evan had to say about creating a win win that doesn’t make customers go around you get their needs met (i.e. which is a lose to Twitter cuz it means some people are pissed with their service). But to be so afraid to provide to add some advertising is a joke. Just try something already. I know if my job was to do nothing but think of Twitter advertising models, I would have thought of a shitload already. Scoble had some good ideas with all the meta data associated with tweets and the popups that they generate. Twitter already started that with the location marker. Just stuff a frigging ad marker already that leads to a popup. Using up 7×11 pixels for a market that leads to an ad is surely something that wont clutter their interface and make them a few bucks. It would be a nice test for them too. Basically they gotta stop this pussy fake ass shit. It’s a front that won’t last long and is bound to break down at some point, as Michael was saying. And really, it’s just dishonest. If that’s the plan become a non-for-profit already. I rather someone do professional honest business with me than someone lying to me. They’re creating this stigma like there is something wrong with making money. Just say it like it is: they dont wanna make money now at the expense of possibly slowing down growth. It’s as simple as that, not this goodie two shoes circus.

I was about to say that.

How is Twitter a force of good, when all they are doing is selling retards’ tweets to Google and Microsoft for profit?

settle down, Denmark.

More fun (and profitable) to be evil really.

Yeh, because capitalism is a _great_ way to run society, right. Oh, as long as you have government to stop monopolies and tax payers to bail out banks when they get too greedy and fuck up national economies. Oh wait, it’s not a free market anymore if you that, is it? And God forbid you would use the tax payers money for things like education, healthcare, and a social safety net.

My thoughts exactly. Priceless quote.

SELF INTEREST IS A GOOD THING ??

The comment “in fact the nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too” is what we learned in college and what was and is still practiced on Wall Street. Look how Wall Street’s self interest crippled the US economy. I am learning that capitalism being “good for everyone” is a normative statement and not a positive (i.e., absolutely true) statement.

Nice Post mike i could not agree more..don’t be evil is full of shit did steve jobs say that recently
mo

Lighten up, Francis ;-)

Let us collect some ideas for Twitter:

- BiDirectional communication
For Example: Messenger functionality with your active followers.

- Develop a global – ORB (Object request Broker)
For Example: Remote control you home pc.

- Develop a “Extended State” storage
For Example: Quick sync for your documents, bookmarks.

This should be simple to implement with the actual twitter infrastructure.

I guess that crunchpad wound never really heals huh? I had my own lesson learned dealing with Singaporean. They can be very tricky, & most people in my country here know them too well.

But I don’t want to go with stereotyping further, you just have to be careful when doing business with everyone nowadays.

“if appropriate government forces are put in place to stop monopolies”

Governments ARE monopolies. If they have ANY accusations against market “monopolies” they should close their criminal offices first.

Of course, if they are not a group of commies, who think they are above everyone else.

good stuff Mike agree with you.
All the evils of the world were done in the name of “good” or the “people” socialism is the perfect example for that, lets do good and save this country on the EXPENSE of OTHER people, great thinking from most people in this country and our government thats why the country is in such a bad state. Baisicly twitter should just say we want to make a killing build kick ass technology and continue changing the world, dont get all angel on us.

I’m actually from Israel. On that count, we’re even worse than USA (ISRAEL:34th/USA:20th). In Israel – you don’t get good welfare AND it’s hard to get rich.

very good post! can’t hear that “dontbeevilness” anymore!

(Hi, Alex K!)

The problem is that one person’s good is another person’s bad, and vice versa. So the word “good” has a different meaning depending on who is saying it.

That being said, I do think that Twitter accomplished a great deal of good in giving people who until previously did not have a voice a global voice. A recent example of this was last year during the Iranian elections. Another recent example is from Haiti, where earthquake survivors were actually able to be located via their Tweets.

Without going into too much detail, I hope that Twitter’s definition of “good” coincides with my definition of “good”. Ultimately, it comes down to the values and ethics of the people at the top calling the shots.

Also, on this topic — did you know that one of eBay’s mottos, in fact their first motto, was “People are basically good”. So this whole idea of good has actually been around for a while.

Great post and a great quote!

Agree with the analogy. But I do want to call for more posts and comments to analyze what evils things Google has done, and what twitter can actually do with the information they have, or can avoid.

Nevertheless, I thought @ev principle is a bit lame. At least have say it with different adj. other than “good”!

The evil and good debate is irrelevant for Twitter or any other business. The issue, as always, is what’s in it for the customer and how can I profit by answering that same question.

Twitter figured out the advantage of “democratizing the Internet” one step further. Good for them!

For anyone who wants to engage in true blue goodness – there are millions of organizations and causes around the world desperate for selfless volunteers and donations.

Free markets, competition, and harnessing people’s self-interest through rewarding entrepreneurship are the most efficient way to fuel technological innovation and provide the greatest selection of goods and services available to the largest amount of people in the most efficient and low-cost way.

Government in and of itself cannot produce wealth, it can only redistribute wealth.

Government needs to be limited, because of the inherent tendency of power to corrupt. Government interference in free markets is responsible for our current economic situation. Misguided social policies were the root cause of the housing bubble. When government gets too powerful, those close to the ones in power are able to profit through their special relationships, at the expense of the rest of us. This is the situation we find ourselves in today, in the USA. We need to take power back from the government and restore it to the people, as the Founding Fathers originally established.

The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money. Nowhere is this more evident than in the failed economies of the European nanny states, and the failed economies of the nanny states of New York, Massachusetts, and California.

I disagree with your assertion of what is currently taught in universities — these days they serve as wholesale indoctrinators of young minds to the failed and misguided ideologies of socialism.

You guys are breaking the 140 rule. #twitter

I guess I don’t get Twitter. ;-)

Cool, the article spoke out my thoughts. And the picture of Dr. Evil fits more than perfect and I had a good laugh!! Thanks for the article!

Wikipedia – A Force for Good.

[...] more http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/twitteruh-oh-not-another-do-no-evil-company/ [...]

I live in Denmark. Don’t believe all you hear. You do NOT want to be on social welfare in Denmark. You can ensure yourself to get a higher unemployment rate – but that’s just market economy.

You get laid in american collgs if you are socialist?

It wasn’t ever said that acting out of self-interest would prevent bubbles in our capital markets, it simply says that we will actually have a good outcome if people act out of self-interest.

Your next argument might be this: If this system works so well, why did the bankers have to come begging for money from tax payers? The answer is that yes, the banks made mistakes, however the problem was only increased by the government’s involvement in Fannie and Freddie. Every loan was securitized and with a wink and a nudge from the government, came out of a black box with the highest of ratings. Imagine starting with bread that has fungus growing on it, putting it into a black box, and at the end of it comes your favorite bread with raisins, cinnamon, etc., every single time.

With less government involvement, the impact would have been less.

Also, these wall street practices you speak of are nothing new. If you aren’t happy with how boards run the company, how executives are treated, etc., vote with your dollars, go say something publicly, don’t just force to do what you want everyone by pointing a gun at their head (government regulation). This society was created on mutual and consensual agreements, anything else is just against freedom.

Capitalism is a great way for a small minority to appropriate the majority of the wealth, but it’s no way to run a society.

“nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too, if appropriate government forces are put in place to stop monopolies, pollution, etc”

Ah now see, that ‘etc’ is the tough part. True capitalism and true socialism both suck equally.

@Michael
Whether it is a tag of “Be a force for good” or “Don’t be evil” that any company or any organization says they follow this principle & stand by it , then i don’t think so we or any body should have any problem. Because, if you feel certain thing is impossible is doesn’t mean that that is really impossible. In-fact nothing in this world is impossible. Only peoples who don’t know how to do that says, that this is impossible.
One more thing , i completely disagree with your statement “just do it, don’t talk about it.” …… because, if u are really doing what u r saying then u never feel any thing wrong with that. In-fact it is the person/organization , who don’t believe on such things then they will never ever get the guts to declare publicly that they really believe on such principles…….

There’s a world of difference between socialism, and having a social conscience. I don’t begrudge Twitter’s C-levels the latter ideal.

By the way, we have plenty of actual socialism going on here in the US, in both the current and last administrations’ reigns. Look no further than the bailouts, stimuli (chuckle), and the constant whining for “job creation from the guvmint” from the party of No at the moment.

Wait. I was morally outraged when Fusion Garage fucked you over. But now you’re saying, “There’s nothing to be mad about — that’s just business.” Your actions don’t reflect your words.

No. Companies have a moral obligation just like people. Incorporation doesn’t get to veil actions. A company, in fact, can and should reflect the founder’s character. A company can and should have more directives than simply to make money. That may sound non-obvious to some, but you’ll find that great companies are ones that act with character.

And that nonsense about Capitalism being the best economic system is hogwash. The “invisible hand” just turns out to be an “invisible handjob” for most people. The top 10 wealthiest countries in the world are all much more socialist than America.

T-shirt I want:

Picture of Larry and Sergey kicking back with their favorite hookers, each w/drink in one hand, cigar in the other.

One says to the other “Aw, what the hell – let’s be evil”

+1 for the Patrick O’Brian quote.

I almost forgot, what’s with the word, “Be a force for good” ?? — What’s this? Is Yoda the new PR manager of Twitter?

unchecked capitalism just fucked up the entire world. communism had previously only managed to fuck up half of it.

Easy to do that when you are a homogeneous and insular country which also benefited immensely from colonialism.
Try it when 50% of the population has to pay only nominal (if any) taxes.

Hi,

You are right when you say that we should not preach about goodness in business.But,thing is what Twitter CEO, Williams says, is more about running business inside and outside.He has tried to explore larger issues,where we have to build up some balance between,employees,stockholders or even consumers.Definately ,its not easy task,but ,certainly,we can create atomsphere where all can grow equally….

Visionwiz
ajay

The Singapore government is a good example of what Mike was talking about: using high-minded slogans to disguise its real nature (e.g Singapore is 140th out of 167 countries for press freedom).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Singapore

Having said that, everyone I know who has been to Singapore likes it a lot. Life is complicated!

Sad to read such an article… I believe first goal of any companies should be to create value for poeple (that’s what “be a force of good” is for me) and not generate profit. Profit is a necessary condition for making a company work not a goal ! It’s sad that so many poeple, especially among entrepreneurs forget about that.

The once good-hearted Google is now gradually turning to the Dark Side and perhaps striving to replace Microsoft.

Its recent trist with Apple is another proof where – as Steve Jobs adequately put – Apple did not stick its nose into the Search Business whereas Google now trying to enter the smart phone business. Who’s its next target? Adobe?

Google should concentrate on excelling its search business and address the bugs of its crawler bots and ad server / matching software rather than trying to re-invent the iPhone or poorly compete Microsoft Office.

> Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in
> college but it’s no way to run a society.

Mike are you aware that there’s an entire 1st world continent where socialism is the norm and capitalism is a kind of curse?

(one that is currently screwed over by capitalistic mishaps the other side of the Atlantic, I might add)

“Or alternatively try to be a force for good. But just do it, don’t talk about it.”

What do you want, Arrington? One of your guys answered questions and Williams answered him. Your objection seems just as generalized as does the “force for good” quote.

I wonder if there has ever been a company that had “Lets Be Evil” as a slogan. Even drug traffickers and weapons smugglers generally are very good at defending their actions.

NPR did an article just the other day about social motivations in company’s mission statements and market realities. In the US, a board of directors can be sued by stockholders if they make a decision to stand on a ethical principle, such as maintaining a green stance in their manufacturing, if it means they don not meet their responsibilities for maximizing profits to the investors. Twitter and Google can state whatever they like, but ultimately the decision of where they stand as a company is based on their bottom line.

“nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to…”

In the real world, this sentence should be finished with something that doesn’t stink so much with self-absorbed fantasy. America has redefined market based capitalism into a very dangerous ideology.
Techcrunch should stick to computer tech issues, social and political analysis on TC is kind of sad.

Well, you guys need to spend an enormous amount on security – broadly defined that’s welfare.

ok its a funny quote but its a very untrue one as well. Incidently, there are loads of socialist elements in our society, including health and transport and justice system and army, which we all appreciate i think..! Also if you judge the principles of socialism based on the soviet union, well duh, of course it doesnt work. still, it you judge capitalism based on Capitalist USA, UK, Russia, you would come to the conclusion that capitalism also completely sucks.

Just because Google’s shareholders abandoned their founder’s moral charter, I dont think you can pre-emptively tar Twitter with the same brush.

You will want to go inform all those european socialist countries they have got it all wrong and how their whole soceity is broken.

Very lame quote, I’m afraid, and just as naive as a company saying they’re a “force for good”. If capitalism “worked” there wouldn’t be any poverty.

I agree in general. But there is a big difference between “don’t be evil” and “a force of Good”. Imho “a force of Good” is much more dangerous. Because you can easily justify evil means for the cause of the “big good thing”.
Most of the dictators defined themselves as “a force of Good”. If you are “a force of Good” your enemies are automaticalla “a force of evil”. Who cares about humilating “forces of evil”?

I think you can also interpret it as, your company should generate profit as well as generating societal benefit. I’d say that is being a force for good, which many companies generally do.

Great quote? Neither the author nor you seem to know the slightest thing about socialist governments, either past or present. If you did, you wouldn’t be so quick to shoot your mouth off. Epic fail as both quote and comment, seems to me.

“Don’t be Stupid!”
I really like this Alex. We are prolly adopting this one ;)

You’re right that Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” schtick has always been smug, facile and, no real guide to its real behaviour.

But your “profit is incompatible with doing right” paragraph is pretty laughable itself. Capitalism is good for everyone, you claim, as long as it’s correctly constrained. Erm. That means it’s not intrinsically good, doesn’t it?

“And some of the most atrocious moments in history were done in the name of good.” — Wow, you’re right. You know what, everyone likes to say they’re doing good. I can’t think of ANYONE who claims they’re doing anything in the interests of evil, or hurting people. Funny, that.

Overall, you might do better to research some of the many companies who are founded on and do successfully operate on ethical grounds. Until Twitter actually do something to demonstrate why they rather than their users are doing something positive, you can safely ignore their self-serving puff.

Right.. In Israel we’re making sure that you’re miserable life would end naturally. That’s great welfare.

many european countries illustrate how socialism can be deployed effectively — especially in terms of housing, healthcare, and food costs. but we americans wouldn’t want to give up the myth of rational choice, would we? we’d rather allow hundreds of thousands of people to go bankrupt from medical debt on the one hand, and continue to be able to buy electronics cheaply on the other.

E,

You might want to do some “research” into the difference between causation and correlation.

I pitty those who will ever have to deal with singaporeans… Have been doing that for 3 years and now I am tight up, but everyday i just want to quit. And yeah, crunchpad thing, just plain stupidity. Former potential killer of iPad is now something resembling male genitalia…

What makes you think Denmark is a homogenus country? Look at Sweden for example (because I don’t know the stats of Denmark), quite the same country and they have over 40% immigrants? 20% from countries outside Europe, probarbly.

If it’s anyone whos insular it’s America, all countries in Europe with Denmark included get immigrants from all Africa and places that USA have “conquered” ie Iraq and Afghanistan.

And I’ve never heard of Denmark using colonialism. You have probarbly mistaken it for Holland, France or UK.

Isn’t control of dissenting opinions a form of communism? So you just hopped right over the stone of socialism, hm?

You have “Do No Evil,” “Be Evil,” and then Chatroulette’s “We Know Nothing.”

You can start by learning that prolly is not probably.

Your judgement may be biased by the fact that few want to read a blog written by a good, considerate person. But most people do want companies to be good and considerate. Nobody would read Techcrunch if its slogan was “don’t be evil”.

No one ever said socialism doesn’t work, carte blanche. For some cultures and smaller countries, it has been successful. Belgium has also topped the happiness list.

The problems crop up when you try to use socialism for a large and diverse country. It’s especially a problem when you try to apply its ideals to a multinational corporation. It breaks down very quickly on a large scale for well-studied reasons. And yet, some of the largest governments are desperately toying with it or even dedicating themselves to it and it’s not going well…

LOL “potential killer of iPad”?!? Yes you’re right, a tablet PC that only does web browsing. Those have never been invented before.

- BiDirectional communication
Have you not used Reply or DM? If you want Instant Messaging, get an Instant Messenger.

- Develop a global – ORB (Object request Broker)
WTF, this is way outside the domain of Twitter and completely unnecessary.

- Develop a “Extended State” storage
This is also way outside the domain of Twitter.

“This should be simple to implement with the actual twitter infrastructure.”
Hah, not at all.

did twitter just announce that they launched MyBlogLog, TwitterCounter, et al?

Israel is the source of 90% of the rooted and zombie boxes hitting my servers right now. At least they’re #1 at something

More nonsense from someone who knows nothing about socialism.

Don’t ever try to tell an American that their way of doing things isn’t the best.

@Chris Dickman

You sound like a socialist who didn’t get laid in college.

That’s 20th century thinking by you, Michael. This is a world now where I can get anything anytime anywhere from anyone.

It is their values that will be a differentiator!

Values equal Profits.

We have better products because of capitalism. Where has it been proposed that capitalism means “no poverty”?

@Robert Owen

Self-righteous idealism is also a great way to get laid in college.

“Every loan was securitized and with a wink and a nudge from the government”

You confused me with this line, because that’s an area of contention today: more or less regulation.

What you seem to be saying is that the government stayed out of the situation (which they did) while the private ratings companies attributed AAA ratings to investments that didn’t deserve the rating based on their risk profile.

How does that support your argument?

There is probably no advertising revenue to made from Iranian users of Twitter. Yet, Twitter could choose to take steps that make it possible for Iranians to continue to use Twitter to communicate with each other anonymously. This is an example of how a company can “be a force for good.”

Most companies want to be a force for good…if life were just about making money you’d be doing M&A instead of covering the tech industry. Even Mike Arrington has his own set of ideals (journalistic, hand-shaking) that he attempts to enact through his business.

No; the “epic fail” is the socialist governments.

“Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.”

Thanks Mike… BRILLIANT!!! you put it succinctly!
That socialist thought process is aimed at maximizing the number of people who like you…so you become eloquent at expressing “their” opinions even better than they can themselves thus effectively becoming well-liked and popular.

Anyways Twitter seems like it wants to be popular. Whether Evan did this consciously or not…this statement will definitely create a warm, fuzzy halo around them just like the college socialists…regardless of whether they ultimately follow through on those promises. So yes… we would rather Twitter created value on the ground rather than puff out promises in the air…but maybe Twitter is playing this PR double-game rather consciously to build goodwill in which case it is a very smart move….
that would be like the college capitalist seducing the college socialists HAHAHA! :)

HAHAH omg; please do us all a favor and look up what socialism means, before you write down such ridiculous statements like this one.

Capitalism is only the “best” system in that it creates an enormous amount of wealth and technological progress, which means if you don’t adopt it you’re going to get run over by those who do.

True socialism will never be achieved on the planet, because those on the high end of the scale (the wealthy) always want to pull their money from the system, to keep more of their own wealth. As it is, they almost always have somewhere else to take their money.

It’s foolish to argue that a system in which the basic needs and wants of every human being were met, thanks to a perfect redistribution of wealth, isn’t the “best” system. It’s just impossible.

Capitalism isn’t good or bad; it’s just the natural result of centuries of evolution of our economic system.

Because it is.

I pretty much want everyone to be good and considerate. If they say they’re going to be good then at least people will hold them to a higher ethical standard. But I don’t read Techcrunch for the schoolboy political commentary I’ve just been served up.

It’s also kind of foolish to assume that you can predict or manage how an internet service will be used. Sure, Twitter was part of the demonstrations in Iran, but what if it comes to light that it’s also the preferred communication tool for drug hit squads in Mexico? You’re setting an expectation that can’t necessarily be met.

Wow, ignorance:

“And some of the most atrocious moments in history were done in the name of good.”

ALL of the most atrocious moments in history were done in the name of good.

I guess you don’t get the irony of Dr. Evil’s character; that is NOBODY thinks that way.

I forget where it’s from, but the fitting quote goes something like:

“Capitalism is the worst economic system there is, except for every other one that currently exists”

Just because it’s the best we’ve got now doesn’t make it the best. Forget that and you’re as bad as the shortsighted tech giants that we all love to make fun of.

Fitting last name

There’s a fine line between “don’t be evil” and “be good”. The line leaves “be okay” and “be neutral” and “be so-so” on the side of “don’t be evil”.

Can we say that the Gorg (and now, perhaps, Twitter) do know evil? Even if, what they do, does no evil, it may not necessarily be, doing evil.

Google does a lot of good stuff. I don’t consider them evil. Especially when they want to stand up against injustice and censorship. They’re one of the first companies out there on the ground when natural disasters hit around the world. For all the crap you want to give them Mike, they are by far, one of the best and most concerned companies out there. Don’t be Evil I wholeheartedly agree with. It worked for them when they were much smaller and I agree – probably doesn’t work now. But don’t go throwing them in the fire.

BTW, can we get a Joo Joo lawsuit update?

[...] While I’m not a big Arrington/Tech Crunch fan, it’s nice to see Michael take on The Next Big Thing. [...]

I’ll grant that we shouldn’t be so naive as to take the catch phrases of major corporations at face value. But, what is so terrible about a company saying that they don’t want to be evil or to be a force for good?

Why can’t a company say “we want to maximize profits, but not at ANY cost?” You say that when a person does what is in their own self-interest, it tends to be good for everyone, why can’t people at a company decide that their self-interest is about more than cents-on-the-dollar and is also about sleeping well at night and looking their kids in the eye. Maybe, instead of expecting that companies will do evil until governments punish them for polluting and forming monopolies, we should start expecting companies to stop polluting in the first place and wasting my tax dollars. What a novel idea!

Furthermore, sometimes trying to “be a force for good” or “do no evil” makes good business sense. People are willing to pay a high premium for things like organic food, fair-trade coffee, conflict-free diamonds, etc. Companies find that employees work better and stay longer if they offer on-site child care and wellness programs. If a company wants to carve a niche and brand themselves as a force for good AND actually live up to the brand, then I’m all for it.

Unbridled capitalism and profit maximization without a sense of morals brought us such wonderful practices as slavery, child-labor, and Enron. If a company aspires to be a force for good, then I remain watchful but I also applaud their efforts.

I have to say that this guy is really unimpressive to listen to and this nonsense makes him sound even worse.

Earth to Twitter: You must find a business model before saving the world!

great, great post.

Chatroulette is more for anarchy. Their motto should be “Good? Evil? Nah…. Balls Out Crazy!”

QOTY: “Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.”

You talk of the inherent tendency of governments to corrupt, yet corporations are legally corrupt, in that they are bound to pursue profit without heeding the needs of anyone or thing, not even their own employees.

You also say that capitalism is the best way to “fuel technological innovation and provide the greatest selection of goods and services available to the largest amount of people in the most efficient and low-cost way.” This has certainly worked for the US (and the UK France etc, though to lesser degrees) , but only at the expense of many more people around the world who do not have access to any ‘selection’ and often have no way to satisfy even basic needs. This is largely due to the capitalist policies that the developed world has forced on other nations through the IMF and World Bank, and the way in which large firms have gone in and effectively raped natural resources and vulnerable workforces. If you discount the shockingly high rate of poverty in the US (worse infant mortality and life expectancy than Cuba?), then yes capitalism has worked out pretty well . It hasn’t been so good for everyone else. But then that’s the point, capitalism is predicated on the belief that you don’t give a damn.

Despite all this it is true that socialism in the forms it has so far existed has failed (though none of those was exactly perfect), but there’s no way you can say capitalism works except for a select few.

“Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.” – EAR MUFFS!!

Michael, this was a great post. Good work. So to speak :)

The self-righteousness of the motto is somewhat cringeworthy, but I disagree that it’s “basically impossible to balance the profit motive and the goodness motive.”

As Nobel prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek said, profit is the signal that we are serving well people whom we do not know. In an economy where economic decisions are voluntary, both the buyer and seller get something they consider valuable out of an economic transaction.

Profit is, itself, a force for good.

“Capitalism is the worst economic …”
The quote was for Democracy I think, attributed to Churchill.

“Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society. ”
Well, Capitalism seems to be working pretty well in the getting laid stakes for a number of members of congress too. Last time I looked, it wasn’t working too well for the economy either.

Maybe there’s a middle ground where we all get laid a bit less and have a good economy too?

If you want an example of someone who is doing good and not shouting about it, then check out http://www.xtrer.com

That simple idea is able to generate millions of $ for good causes, without making a song and dance about it.

Sitting where I am right now in the back of rural Thailand, I know that it is possible to be a force for good without making an arse of yourself in the process. – Simon

The US brand of capitalist socialism happens to be better for me personally than Swedish socialism. I have no kids, I’m not in school, I’m not sick, and there are more opportunities to make more money here with less going to the tax man.

Having said that it certainly isn’t better for the average citizen in terms of a) quality of life, b) opportunities, c) health care, d) education, e) etc. Scandinavia also has ways of dealing with homeless that doesn’t result on them painting office buildings with their feces. (Soma anyone?)

see “Vikings”

[...] Uh Oh. Not Another “Don't Be Evil” Company [...]

“the nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too, if appropriate government forces are put in place to stop monopolies, pollution, etc. ”

I bet Arrington was really really good at economics, I luuuuuuved that sentence, especially the etc part, that guy should be teaching at Harvard.

Exactly. If you’re values are so great, living them is its own reward. The lady does trumpet too much.

Isn’t “Don’t be Evil” trademarked by Google?

Exactly, just like Google’s is “Don’t be evil”…to their wallet, shareholders, bankers etc

I wouldn’t call Google an “Evil” company, just like I wouldn’t call MS or Apple that. They are out to make money just like everyone else. “stand up against injustice and censorship” is just a PR exercise, they just did that distract everyone from the fact that they got hacked, they had no issue censoring prior to the hacking incident and no problem censoring in other countries.

You banned Singapore IPs? I am fully aware of your Crunchpad hurt, and am with you on that one, 100%. But hey.. not everyone in Singapore is a crook. There are many ardent TC lovers in Sing, so banning IPs due to one Crunchpad experience isn’t a good idea in my opinion. You just got caught to the wrong person and a wrong company. Bad luck..

As for IPs, i travel the globe almost daily. So last one was left from Srilanka :) not Sing. He he :) You were right, i couldn’t have made it from Sing..

“the nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too”

Mike, you should focus on tech…

As If any of you would have the slightest idea that America shares the worst with a socialist government ( central bank, Government regulation, Self-censored mainstream media, a huge political machinery that drains the system out of resources, taxation without representation and the death penalty.) while not having the basic which most of westernized socialist governments enjoy, Public health care and free schooling to name two.

I would like you, Mr Arrington, to state your background in socialism that allows you to make such wild affirmations, or just acknowledge that you in this case do not have the slightest idea of what you are talking about, and probably did not get laid for being such a lousy socialist.

not.

“the nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too”

Oh and yeah I’m sure that wall street traders were thinking that too.

“hey guys let’s make shitloads of money and destroy the world economy, who gives a shit huh ? it can’t be bad for people if it’s good for me! ahahahahaha!”

Well said, enjoyed the article here. Of course, I am into evil and practice it everyday. I mean, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice!

before you correct other posts, try checking your own:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Former_Danish_colonies

“Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.”

I hate to break it to you spanky, but the United States is already socialist (just like every other Western society… it’s all a matter of degrees). Medicare, Medicaid, social security, farm subsidies, police, firefighters… the list of evil socialist services goes on and on.

Being a free market fundamentalist may be a great way to score points with your simplistic sycophants, but it’s no way to run a country… including yours.

hey Mike,
You still don’t like twitter.. huh! lately as i did not see many posts on you and twitter i thought you started to like twitter.

i think this will go on and on..

By the way.. i like all your posts and read most of them.. this twitter thing and u .. i have been seeing since the last couple years…

i wish someday you will write a nice post on twitter..

tks, nag

This is so Star Wars. If I may,

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.
– Yoda

maybe your government could afford to spend it’s money on healthcare if it wasn’t busy stealing countries and waging war, right?

my country is the same, waging war and shitty healthcare

life is great!

The citizens in America who are not under the dream-like state that [America's] corporate leaders put it under are fully aware of the injustices and overall poor decisions that the country makes on a daily basis. Not everyone is brainwashed. There are true followers of the constitution out there.

I thought Google was for censorship before they were against it? Didn’t they censor Tianamen Square photos/articles when they first entered China?

Ever noticed how your boy MG’s favorite (as-in rabid fanboi) companies are also the self-righteous ones?

There must be a rule-of-thumb here, somewhere.

Another high-minded Orwellian slogan? “Health Care Reform”. Nothing but a governmental power grab to enslave and bankrupt the people.

Is. If you think another country is better, then go move there; otherwise SU.

At some point all those European states are going to implode because they cannot sustain themselves economically. You already see it in Greece and the UK. Most of them now have to allow large numbers of Muslim immigrants, who are bringing their own set of rules with them. There are places in Sweden where Swedish police no longer go because they have lost all control. Malmo, I believe was the city’s name. Why are they allowing all these immigrants in? Because with negative population growth, they simply cannot collect enough taxes from the native population to support their massive social programs.

Jasper, I see that you have been well indoctrinated by your college professors to be a good little unquestioning liberal.
When was the last time a great invention came out of the UK, France, or anywhere but the US?
Where was the Internet invented? The personal computer? ALL of our most recent medical advances and pharmaceuticals? Etc. etc.

The problem with the rest of the world is that by and large they do not respect the individual. Most of the third world is run by dictators — which is PRECISELY why they remain in the third world. Those people are exploited by their own native dictators far more than any historical exploitation which has occurred.

Capitalism is predicated on the understanding that respect for the individual is the most powerful force in the entire world.

Don’t blame capitalism for the evil that exists in the world. There is far more evil in North Korea than in South Korea. If you don’t believe me, well, go move to North Korea. Otherwise, be thankful for what you have and don’t bad-mouth the system which has given you every privilege which most people in the world can only dream about.

Wow, I see I have a huge amount of education to conduct here. Not surprising, since the Left controls the media and education (both K-12 and at the college/university level), so the real truth is not being taught and we basically have massive ignorance of the facts. Which is how they retain power.

Specifically, the housing bubble was caused by the Community Reinvestment Act, championed by Bill Clinton, which sought to increase mandate levels of home ownership regardless of rational criteria such as ability to pay. BAD social engineering caused the market collapse. I don’t have time to do a full walk-through right now, perhaps tonight.

@Rudiger

So is being evil.

If you want people to prosper, allow the rich to prosper. If you want people to live in poverty, try to eliminate the rich.

We were all born with different abilities. Some of us work hard. Some of us don’t. Some of us act charitably towards others. Some of us act selfishly. Some of the greatest humanitarians have been people of great wealth. Do you think we could have helped Haiti if we ourselves had no economic wealth? (Incidentally, the reason that country is so poor is because of endemic corruption i.e. the root cause is a spiritual one, not lack of resources).

It is wrong for the government or anyone else to deny a person the fruits of his or her labor. I believe the technical term for that is: slavery. Basically, socialism = slavery. And if the government is going to take all the fruits of your labor, what incentive do you have to work hard? Zero. You’re going to basically sit around, and do whatever you can do to cheat the system. This is one of the many inherent intrinsic structural defects of communism/socialism.

Governments do not have compassion. They cannot; they are not sentient beings. Only people can have compassion. Government should never be entrusted to carry out charity; that should be left to individuals. The role of government is to prevent crime. Not to forcibly compel people to act in a particular way. And again, any time you have an amassing of power/money, there you will find corruptocrats swarming.

Welfare was enacted in 1965. What do we have today? The breakdown of families (because welfare incentivizes single parenthood and disincentivizes individual responsibility). It has created a dependent class which goes from generation to generation to generation being dependent on handouts. Why should anyone receiving free money try to strive to be personally responsible?

The focus needs to be on ensuring everyone has opportunity, not forcing everyone to be equal. Because you will never make everyone equal.

Greg, when was the last time a poor person offered you a job?

It’s not a small minority which holds wealth — last time I checked, the great majority of Americans own stock in public companies.

Clearly you do not understand the end game of socialism, which is always and inevitably economic implosion.

Really, David? Please list those 10 countries.

So is your assertion that the current state of Zimbabwe is preferable to the previous state of affairs in Rhodesia? Hmm.

EXACTLY. Profit to a company is like fuel in the engine of a car. Without it, the car goes nowhere. But people in America have been brainwashed by the Left to vilify the fuel.

If the Left succeeds in their control of the masses (via brainwashing) and ultimate takeover, guess what will happen? The car won’t move.

no, we don’t all appreciate them. some of us prefer freedom more than access to other people’s property

People can collaborate voluntarily to solve their problems. they don’t need to be coerced

we’ll never achieve peace in the world until we stop using force against peaceful people. and the use of force is what government and socialism are all about

Really, Ed? How do you know you’re not the one with the self-absorbed fantasy? Because your college professors (who have never run a business in their entire life) have taught you so? Because the media tells you so?

You should stick to tech issues, but if you really hate capitalism so much, you should renounce your computer and get off the Internet, too — so that way you at least won’t be a hypocrite.

Such as the murder of >100 million people in the name of Communism.

Actually, people want to be able to *feel* like they’re “good”. If you tell them that what they’re doing is good, and they don’t have any other frame of reference, they will likely believe that, and attack anyone who challenges their sense of moral superiority/moral dispensation. Presenting such people with facts will sometimes enlighten them, but often provoke an irrational attack as their sense of their own “goodness” is jeopardized.

You don’t need capitalism to have slavery, child labor, etc. Those things are alive and well in totalitarian nations around the world, throughout history. Capitalism has nothing to do with it. However, in a free society, those things can be challenged. Not so in totalitarian dictatorships.

..the founders of Twitter(Ev et al) have got to be some of the biggest charlatans since the dot con era. first they were about ‘what are you doing’ and trying their hardest to enforce that type of usage. then when they realized users were disseminating information via twitter in far more creative and socially beneficial ways than they had originally intended, they jumped on the bandwagon and literally appropriated the mantra of ‘using twitter for good.’

funny thing is over 75% of tweets come from less than 10% of users with usage leveling off. what will the founders of twitter glom onto next once folks realize the futility of the service and what a waste of time it all is..

when markets are free, overtime everyone pays less for ever improving products and services

but when government gets involved in a particular market, people get less value for their money. its inevitable.

a centralized decision making system with politically determined criteria for what is allowed is simply not going to try new things or pay attention close attention to customers, two very critical things the drive costs down and quality up.

you don’t need to look far to see the truth of this. just look at health care. portions of the market with little government involvement, such as cosmetic surgery, see constantly lowering costs and quality increases.

But the portion where government is involve are in constant crisis, mostly because government favors things like employer insurance, which hide the true costs of things from consumers and fulfill politicians’ need to make the people think they are getting something for nothing.

BTW, Techcrunch? Could you please upgrade the site to have a better comment system than WordPress VIP? I recommend IntenseDebate.

Jwcn, it’s clear to me that you’re just making stuff up now. You sound like the perfectly indoctrinated robot.

Some questions for you:

Who declared fatwah on who?

Which countries in the world benefit from the umbrella of military protection afforded by the United States, leaving them free to dick around with bankrupting themselves in other ways?

Why is the cancer death rate in the United Kingdom 20x that of the United States?

Why did the Premier of Newfoundland (in Canada) recently travel to the United States to receive medical care? Wasn’t his socialized medicine good enough for him?

Why won’t members of Congress be covered under the same plan that they wish to impose on all the rest of us? Shouldn’t they be the first to sign up, if it’s so great?

Why are governments going bankrupt? I could max out my credit cards and buy food for all the homeless people on the street, but who would end up paying the bill when I declare bankruptcy?

These are some questions I bet your college professors have never bothered to ask you. Nor will anyone in the media discuss them or let you know about them.

“First because it’s basically impossible to balance a profit motive with a goodness motive.”

write about what you know about Michael.

[...] Business Processes Via The Web, Supports …Facebook Kicks Off Implementation Of QR CodesUh Oh. Not Another “Don't Be Evil” CompanySimilar Posts:5 Tips For Staying Razor Sharp When Starting Your Home Business EnterpriseHow to Get [...]

an embarrassing admission by Evan Williams

almost as bad as LinkedIn founder’s expressed desire to be a “public intellectual”

I don’t know if your first two statements are sarcastic or not, because I consider myself to be far less indoctrinated than anyone else I know. Did you say that because of my comment about the constitution? I don’t understand, if so.

I do not believe you understand what fatwa is, or maybe I am the one who is misunderstanding. To my understanding, Fatwa is a ruling or “guideline” set forth by Islamic religious leaders. It is not something that can be “declared” from one body to another. For example, a religious leader (Mullah Tahir ul Qadri) recently declared to the people of Islam that violence has no place in Islam, and that all violent acts (thereby including terrorism) are blasphemous, no excuses.

I do not believe in a world police. I think the US government is entirely wrong in it’s “policing of the world”, especially having committed such atrocities in Japan. While there are countries that ultimately are bullied by larger countries, I think a cooperative world effort should be at the helm, and not specifically a superpower like the US.

The cancer rate? I believe the cancer rate is the same, worldwide, unless near a source of contamination i.e. strong microwaves, radioactive waste, or large amounts of known carcinogens (mm, I sure do love the taste of nitrates in my packaged meat!) If you mean to compare the *mortality* rate between the two countries, then I would have to say it’s because the United States has the best doctors in the world, and it is one of the leaders in medical technologies.

As for the Premier of Newfoundland coming to the US for treatment. I believe I read in the past that citizens of the US generally surveyed as being happy/content with their healthcare, while countries with government ran healthcare generally polled as “discontent, needs improvement”. This also goes back to my point of the US having a superb backing of doctors, technology, and modern information. I never said that the US has poor healthcare, I just believe that getting healthcare is difficult for everyone whether it be due to the monopolies that HMO’s run or whatever else it may be. In all, we have access to comprehensive treatment for chronic diseases and illnesses, and far better access to preventative treatments. I’m not saying that 100% government run healthcare the answer, but we do need an effective change for all citizens.

Members of Congress, the presidential cabinet, and even our Judges are ran by corruption and corporation, as they go hand in hand. The important question is why can’t the rest of us have what the men and women of Congress get?

My opinion is that governments are going bankrupt because of a plethora of reasons, it can’t just be blamed on a single cause. Poor spending in the right sectors compared to excessive/wasteful spending in others. Senators are leeching off the top, businessmen and CEO’s are leeching off the bottom. Bankers are taking everything in between for their own pocketbooks, all while the government hand feeds it to them.

Surely you could max out your credit cards and feed the homeless, but we could do that already without spending any more than we already do. Each year 700,000 people die from starvation, there are about 7 billion people on the planet, we produce enough food for 12 billion people annually. Why all the waste? There is no money in feeding the poor.

The media would never discuss these issues because we have no widely broadcast free media in the United States. The media is no longer ran by the people (if it ever was, I am unsure), but is now run by the corporations and shareholders that fund it, not to mention censored by various administrations. Cable TV is no more than mind control for children-like minds, convincing you to buy shit that you don’t need, keeping you docile and quiet, never revolting. Documentaries and books are seemingly the last source of mostly unfiltered opinions and information.

Politics are not my strong point, maybe one day. In reference to your first statement: I have an open mind to the possibilities and I have shook off the years of indoctrination I was subjected to as a youth. I feel more awake than I ever have, I can honestly say that I am self aware, something that most citizens cannot. I am not a real activist, at least not yet. I refuse to stand by idle while constitutional rights are stripped away by the puppets-masters who run the country. The constitution is there to control the government, not for the government to control it’s citizens.

Straight from the constitution, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government”. It is my duty.

Please correct me if I am within the realm of error.

Correction, I misread “cancer death rate” as “cancer rate”. You were correct in your original statement, my apologies for making it sound otherwise.

And the US won’t implode under a consumer-capitalist rule?

You cannot harvest infinite resources from a finite source.

[...] Uh Oh. Not Another “Don’t Be Evil” Company Long ago Google unofficially abandoned the Don’t Be Evil mantra and replaced it with, no kidding, an “evil [...] [...]

Maybe the only reason Canada and Europe are able to bankrupt their respective economies with wrongheaded social programs (and their elite travel to the United States for critical health care) is because they are under the military umbrella of the United States.

Let me preface this by saying that the WordPress comment sucks.

OK, now that we have that out of the way.

You, as well as at least half of this country, are under the mistaken belief that if we just were to leave the Islamic countries alone, they will leave us alone. If we were to just stop supporting Israel, they would leave us be. In doing so, you show a fundamental lack of understanding of the mindset of the jihadists. They will not be appeased until the entire world is living under Sharia law, and all bow to Mecca five times a day, at sword/gunpoint if need be. Look in the Koran, it’s right there.

They’ve been attempting this not just this century, but they were actually somewhat successful back in the Byzantine era. This is a modern-day revival of a war that has been going on for over a millenia.

Osama bin Laden *declared war* via fatwa on the United States in 1996. Think of it as the equivalent of the attack on Pearl Harbor, although the actual attack did not occur until 2001.

So, the United States is not the aggressor here, I know your lefty professors have probably drilled into your head for years that the United States are the evil ones, who exploit the rest of the world. The fact is that we are the sole defenders of freedom on this planet. There will always be aggressors, and the best way to deter aggression is with a strong military. Do you think another country, say Iran or China, would think twice about invading and conquering us if it were not for the fact that we are more than capable of defending ourselves and destroying them? If you believe they would not, then you know nothing of history. The history of man is the history of countries at war. What is unique about this time we live in is the contrast between the core values of this country: on the one hand, freedom and individual liberty for all, and on the other, the core values of all of the other nations in history to date (the strong dominating the weak, kingships, dictatorships, fascists, and the Soviet, Chinese, North Korean, (insert communist regime here) politboro elite).

OK, that was just Part 1 of a reply to your lengthy post. I will have to continue later as I need to go to a meeting right now.

No one made any claims that we have an absolute free market economy, don’t have social programs or that government services and agencies don’t have their place. I believe that he made that clear with the statement that capitalism is good “if appropriate government forces are put in place to stop monopolies, pollution, etc.” But the truth is that we’re way more of a capitalist leaning country than a socialist and considering our GDP is almost as high as the next 4 closest countries combined, I’d say its working pretty well….spanky.

Arrington, I’m disappointed in you. We’ve really got to get out of this dogmatic mindset that companies _should_ be essentially, psychopaths, driven by nothing but profit motive. Because that leads to people within companies making psychopathic decisions, regardless of the benefit to the shareholders.

If a company, as a body of people, decides it has more goals than just profit, that should be applauded.

And I’d like to point out, we’re in this present economic mess precisely because market dogma led us here.

[...] Google can very easily be criticized for not adhering to their own slogan. Well, it seems that Twitter’s new slogan is pretty similar: “Be a force for good.” For the most part, I think it’s a bad [...]

It is all about winning in a win/win way. As someone said, ‘if winning does not matter, why do they keep score?’

[...] article from TechCrunch, this reminds me of Jack Neo case. He likes to explicitly insert moral lessons into his movies, and [...]

you’d be wrong. the economy is a basket case. and we still haven’t got the bill. we are delaying and denying and deferring the correction this economy needs.

of course, if we truly were a free market economy, government would not be in the business of creating and re-inflating bubbles

Too bad I dint get to study in the land of the free :-(

The “use of force” is what socialism is about??? Wow ehm ok so let me think, capitalism is truly good and no government has ever used a war as an excuse to gain on land, money or resources then, right? I am sorry but have you been living under a stone for the last centuries???

Also, I strongly disagree with the statement that “People can collaborate voluntarily to solve their problems”. Some people within a society cannot support themselves and do need help from institutions, as you can clearly see by the lack of a good heath care system in the United States. However neither socialism nor capitalism are the perfect systems for any society so far, but it’s sadly the best we have apparently. Having said that, a less selfish system such as socialism, where not the poor and other less fortunate people are treated like less valuable human beings is something every country should strive for.

The great American capitalism clearly demonstrated its supremacy to socialism leading whole world to the financial crisis last year.

I think “Don’t be evil” motto is just BS.

Now for twitter, I think they should improve their platform, seeing them hitting a saturation.

Without googles claim we wouldn’t call google evil. I think this claim is a ‘shoot in googles own foot’.

WoW.

I’m going to jump from a cliff and crash myself in the ground so I do not have to hear and unapologizing converse to Americanism, defend a world military superpower as an umbrella of peace in which countries according to you can bankrupt themselves with socialist experiments, while the umbrella keeps protecting us.

CHON, be cool and please go back to school, before you open your mouth again and somebody with knowledge of something else that is not FOXed, comes and slaps your fat americanized brain.

Aced.

Thats why i used word “potential” since nobody has put his hand on both iPad and JooJoo( former Crunchpad)

1) Bible says: Eye for an eye, Tooth for a tooth
2) The US defecit and hence its economy is financed by the Chinese buying of US bonds and debt (The chinese are socialist)
3)Eu unemployment rate is lower than the US
4) EU poverty rate is lower than US
5) Eu health care is universal
6) EU average life span is higher than US
7) EU infant death rate is lower than the US
8) EU currency is stronger than the US dollar
9) Why do americans have to buy perscripion drugs in Canada (In the EU they are free or subsidized to 66 – 90%)
10) Why do US citizens travel to mexico and canada for medical treatement
11) US military presence is not a benign gift to the world. It is designed to protect US NATIONAL interest (Ask X VP Cheney and Haliburton)
12) US military soaks uop US unemployed and prevents social chaos in US cities

Flashback, a 9 year old kid died in the Bronx, NY because the ambulance will not go into this neighborhood without police escort. These were no immigrants but American Citizen…stop patronizing us!
Without all those immigrants the US as well as other economies would collapse immediately. They do the job no one else wants to do. And btw immigrants do pay taxes as well like anybody else…so what are you talking about?

Sources.

Look what I can say:

“Poor people in America are feed to the rich, as friday specials in Burger Queen”

or

“Nobody dears wandering into Brooklyn because you will get mugged and killed in 5 minutes or eaten alive by godzilla”

No matter how many times I repeat this, with no sources is still fantasy talk or better put BS.

PeekYou Announces New Corporate Slogan “Be Good for Goodness Sake”

In response to Twitter’s recently announced desire to “Be a Force for Good” and Google’s famous corporate mantra “Don’t be Evil,” the people search company PeekYou realized that it too needed to encapsulate its core values in a pithy turn of words.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/peekyou/announces-new-slogan/prweb3739304.htm

Michelene, if you consider all the “imported” scientists from Germany, India, China or other countries working on US inventions/ innovations, they are suddenly not so American anymore.

While I agree that dictatorship is not an option, your conclusion that the ‘rest of the world’ doesn’t respect the individual is just plain bullshit. In many ways Europe respects the individual much more than the US. We just might have a different definition of ‘respect’, which is less focused on money for those who already have enough, but more on the well-being of the general public – health care, social security, environmental responsibility, respect for other countries/ cultures/ religions, education for the unprivileged, just to name a few.

PS. Konrad Zuse was a German, just to be precise, as were the people who invented the MP3 algorithm and also the inventor of the smart card which is used widely in debit and credit cards. Except for the US which is so advanced that cheques are still a major payment option. Oh, not to mention all those above-ground power lines on wooden posts which breakdown in your next ice storm, leaving you with the option to light a good old bonfire in your kitchen so as not to freeze to death. And don’t get me started on 110V, houses with a completely inefficient insulation and heating system, roads which consist mainly of potholes, and not a single high-speed train anywhere in the country.

SO progressive.

I’m with you Chris. I thought that part was really stupid.

next he’ll be quoting Yoda.

twitter is not mainstream and after trying it for a few months I found it a burden to post anything there, and all the messages I received from my “followers” were all spam promoting their own tweets.

It’s a ponzi scheme for egos.

majority, minority, who cares
http://howabouts.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/i-am-a-cheap-indian/

Well “Good” is in the Air!! – LOL See below Press release!! ;-)

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 17, 2010 — Google’s famous corporate mantra is “Don’t be Evil.” As a symbolic gesture to the search giant, Twitter has just announced its desire to “Be a Force for Good.” In response, the people search company PeekYou realized that it too needed to encapsulate its core values in a pithy turn of words.

“We realize we are playing with some stiff competition and we don’t want to fall behind on the innovation curve,” said PeekYou CEO Michael Hussey. “Hearing about all the Good things going on in our market space, we thought…you know…let’s just ‘Be Good for Goodness Sake.’”

As the FTC and leaders of interactive companies consider new privacy regulations in an age of social media, PeekYou drives Goodness by delivering transparency, relevancy, and a more personalized web experience. While consumers and advertisers stand to benefit from such a personalized web experience, PeekYou will offer new mechanisms for controlling one’s online identity, ensuring that each individual have the final say over how their information is utilized across all emerging digital platforms.

Other slogans considered by the PeekYou team:

“Good to the Nth power”
“Good/Evil – Can’t we all just get along?”
“Good to the last drop” (PeekYou soon realized this was already someone else’s slogan)

PeekYou encourages its fans and users to go to their Twitter profile (@peekyou) to weigh in on the new slogan and propose new ones.

These guys are funny! – Nice one!

JT

“self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too”

WHAT?! Self interest tends to be good for one’s self. The word “everyone” is collectivist.

Arrington, tell me. Why is a state-run economy like Norway’s equates to high sustainability and low poverty rates?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Failed_States_Index#Sustainable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Poverty_Index#For_selected_OECD_countries_.28HPI-2.29

Why does Norwegian billionaire Johan H. Andresen Jr. hate Bill Gates?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_H._Andresen_jr.

+1 @Michelene Chon

Nothing all about it………….Down down

No, really, it is a minority that holds the majority of wealth. As of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of US wealth with the top 1% owning 38% of US wealth. Currently, the top 1% is now estimated to hold somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of all US wealth.

Some or many Americans each owning even tens of thousands of common shares in some corporation is meaningless when there are hundreds of millions of shares. As an example, National Amusements recently sold a massive 16.3 MILLION shares of Viacom Class B stock and that amounted to a whopping THREE PERCENT of the total Class B shares outstanding. We’re talking about over 500 MILLION shares of class B stock outstanding, here, and some untold number of shares held by the company itself.

i like this article

[...] TechCrunch: Uh Oh. Not Another “Don’t Be Evil” Company [...]

All those servers you own. We’ll just call you Daddy Datacenter from now on.

Another #1 wacko.

Another ignorant European twat yammering about the evils of the US. Seriously, you want to claim that Europe has a higher percentage of immigrants than the US? France has 5% immigrants, and that’s one of the most ‘progressive’ when it comes to immigration. And the US is more culturally homogeneous than a European country? And the US has invaded middle eastern territories longer than the couple-hundreds of years of European Imperialism?

Truly, sir, it’s time you either educate yourself, or STFU. You need to get your head out of your ass.

Agreed. It is the top 5% that ruined the economy, the people with money loaning it to people who couldn’t pay it back certainly did us no good.

Clearly the system works.

great American capitalism

this is the most beautiful writing on IT business, ever.

What a lot of unmitigated codswallop.

It would be nice if figuring out who to trust was as simple as ‘one of us always lies, one of us always tells the truth’ but it’s not. Sometimes when someone says ‘you can trust me’, what they mean is… you can trust them.

How is a profit motive incompatible with a goodness motive, exactly? You make profit by getting people to give you their money. There are evil ways of making money, certainly, but the vast majority of profit to be made lies in making people happy and getting them to pay you to do so.

If they are incompatible in any sense then it is in the sense that ANY two goals will conflict with one another in some situations. So basically you’re arguing that corporations should be single-minded to the point of being functionally retarded.

Being socialist is no way to run a country, huh? Maybe you should tell that to the nations of Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and even, yes, the United States – in other words all of the stable, free, successful nations in the world, who all practice some degree of democratic socialism.

Now if we’re talking about actual socialism, not the democratic socialist ideals of public services and the welfare state, actual Marxist socialism? Well, that just means the workers own the means of production. So for a corporation to be socialist only requires that the people who own it, also run it. If you’re self-employed or working for a small collective, you’re already a good socialist in deed if not in name.

I’d like to hear about some of these “atrocious moments in history” that were done “in the name of good”. Granted if you stretched the definition of ‘good’ far enough then every action ever is taken ‘in the name of good’ – for example “I will kill these foreign infidels for the good of my own nation/religion/ideology/wallet!” But I don’t recall Pol Pot’s murderous regime, for example, calling for the killing of intellectuals for the greater glory of goodness, unicorns and little puppies.

“One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in business, and am still learning, is to never trust anyone who says ‘you can trust me.’ ”

Brilliant. True. Learned it the hard way myself.

Is it so hard to believe that people want to apply their personal ethics to their business? If CEOs are public about their moral standards then shareholders buy knowing how the company will be governed and are unlikely to find a majority willing to oust the CEO. Certainly that’s my view at We Are Cloud.

Michael, you are off the mark with this article. Haven’t you heard the term “Social Enterprise” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise)? Perhaps your struggle to understand making a profit and doing good at the same time is because of your own (mis)understanding of this topic?

Then again, you do good by providing this blog and I am sure you make money… so give yourself a pat on the back :-)

There is no purpose in making a crap load of money if you can’t do some good along the way!

I applaud Twitter for making this stance…. now how they define “good”, that’s a whole new topic of conversation.

“First because it’s basically impossible to balance a profit motive with a goodness motive” – disagree. Check out all the great stuff happening in the social entrepreneurship world for examples of how to balance the two. The field is all about doing well and doing good.

[...] make almost all of its money off of ad revenues? Yes. But does that mean they’re out to screw you by any means necessary? [...]

Google may not be the next coming of Jesus or the next Mother Theresa but they are very nice for a gigantic company. Just tthe fact that they even decided to challenge China on censorship or even tell their visitors that they were being censored shows that.

Many, not to say most companies, are only about the buck, just take a close look at Monsanto or Nestle and you’ll know what evil really is: those guys would sell their mothers and condemn to starvation a thousand poor countries for an extra buck – I still have to see Google to do something like that.

And if you compare them with Microsoft, at least you have to admit they really focus on delivery quality first, not just eating the market with crap like MS does (refer to Vista for an example).

Time will tell but I am telling you, they are pretty darn nice for a big company

“Do no evil” to who?

http://bit.ly/9KowqY
http://gizmodo.com/5500578/google-would-remind-my-grandpa-of-the-arrogant-white-invaders

[...] growing and potentially powerful industry.  This is why it was particularly troubling to read a Tech Crunch article by Michael Arrington that largely generalized and lambasted companies for trying to be profitable [...]

[...] z ochroną prywatności, cenzurowaniem wyników i monopolistyczną pozycją), które wywołują kpiny z motta firmy: “nie czyń zła” (“don’t be evil”). Czy te dwie rzeczy [...]

Google’s newest policy: Whenever you do a google search, five dollars will be taken from your bank account and donated to people in haiti.