He said that companies should think carefully about whether they are providing an ethical service to Chinese citizens and took aim at critics of Google's U-turn. Brin has admitted in the past that launching the censored service in 2006 was a mistake. "We have always opposed [censorship] but obviously we have now taken a stronger point of view," he said. "I was surprised immediately after our January announcement how much resentment there appeared to be among free marketeers.""The notion that any company should make any sort of decision other than to maximise profit? I would hope that larger companies would not put profit ahead of all else. Generally, companies should pay attention to how and where their products are used."
Sergey has discovered what many of us knew long ago - that the current form of capitalism is based on an ideology free of any ethical dimension. Correction - an ideology whose only ethical dimension is not straying from the pursuit of profit as the main, and only, operational rationale. Companies do pay attention to how and where their products are used but it is data collected to analyse how to increase profits or determine whether a market is still lucrative enough to operate in.
Seems to me there should be ground rules for the activities of corporations:
1. They should not be considered individuals under law, as they have been in the US since 1913.
2. They should not be allowed to make political donations or contributions or lobby Governments.
3. Corporations whose HQs are founded in democratic countries should not operate in, or trade with, dictatorships or authoritarian countries.
4. They should not be allowed to invest in media companies if media is not their primary business.
5. They should be required to sign a Investment Pact with the local communities in which they operate that specifies a minimum period of time of operation. Suddenly withdrawing or closing down would mean a fine that covers the costs of rebuilding trade and employment in the community.
6. They should be held strictly accountable for the impact of their operations on the environment in which they operate - no more unaccountable contingencies.
7. They should be employee owned - small to medium businesses can be wholly privately owned.
8. They should not be allowed to have majority ownership of national infrastructure - communications, hospitals, education, transport, energy, security.
9. They should not trade in commodities that reduces the bio-diversity and integrity of the environment.
10. No corporation should be allowed to operate in a country where their net worth is greater than the annual GDP.
