this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
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Technology

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Does enshitification happen because companies are publicly-traded? (beehaw.org)
submitted 6 months ago by hedge@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Isn't that a prerequisite for enshitification? Publicly-traded companies are required (by law, I think) to maximize profits for their shareholders, even if that means utterly ruining their original product (Reddit, Boeing, etc.), yes? What do you think?

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

'Member before publicly traded companies? We had dudes like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Company towns, rats in the sausage, kids getting caught in giant cogs...

No, it's not because they're publicly traded. It's because people like money, and if they have enough they can pay to not look at the side effects of getting it - whether that's dead kids or just no privacy and bad content.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You dont have those things not happen any more because of the stock market, you dont have to endure those things any more because regulations prevent it.

I can guarantee you 100% that if corporations could use child labor again, or dump rats in a meat grinder and sell it, they would in a heartbeat.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Yep. No disagreement.

OP was asking whether public trading causes shitty business behavior.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Ah fair enough, that makes more sense then. Read it as an argument for the free market

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It wasn't, although it wasn't an argument against per se either. Both were/are markets.

What actually needs to happen with internet enshittification is probably some kind of regulation. People just don't understand the magic boxes well enough to not fall prey. The EU is on it, at least. With Boeing, probably the Enron formula. We'll see how many accidents it takes to create movement on that, considering it's a company that makes the big banks look disposable by comparison.