Non-profit Machine

I sold my Google stock today. Don't worry, I didn't have much, so I still need to sleep on your couch. I mention it only by way of getting to the idea for today. My biggest complaint about Google is quite simple that it is a business, a corporation and therefore out for profit.

This makes sense right? What it means is that there is always a bottom line and that it is always profit. When it comes down to it everything else that any company wants to do (organize information, save lives with cancer drugs) is always secondary to their profit motive. Maybe not every individual in said company, but the company itself (eg in some way every single perhaps sets aside their aims for the aim of this larger machine).

Obviously non-profit things already exist, but I'm actually writing this with something else in mind entirely. I'm actually writing this with corporations themselves in mind. If you've noticed Google is getting its share of bad press lately and people are beginning to theorize that it is now a Microsoft-esque monstrosity. While I'm not sure that that is true, the argument goes: in the end corporations are after more of the pie and once they have a certain amount of the pie then they are considered evil. Just sort of the way the market works. Corporations want to be monopolies even when they don't want to be, it's their internal contradication. But big C capitalism doesn't go for a single player having too much and so the people turn and the company gets a bad rep no matter what they do.

So now my idea:

Corporations should make the profit motive their (at most) number two objective. A business model should start with a single objective and possibly a few more. And say: make money. And it should always remain in that order. And possibly right before the 'make money' objective, there should be something that says 'stay alive as a company' (eg self-regulate such that you never get to the point where money making takes precedence over the objective). Thing is, for a long time making money will look like the best way to achieve that objective (more money = more ability to do x), but there will come a time when that flips and the making of money will actually hinder the ability to do 'x' (the time when public opinion goes the other way on you and probably because they see profit as the motive above x).

Seriously this is important for these people. And it can't simply be a PR issue. This is literally the stuff that makes or breaks businesses and it needs to be concrete. Corportations need to print in big bold letters what it is they are trying to do and if ever they make a choice they should be able to say: 'this helps us do 'x' in this way.' There should never be a question that can't be answered this way. And they should actively articulate what it will do to profit as well (eg this will help profit this much, but is not the objective; this will hurt profit, but will contribute to 'x').

I don't know. Maybe if this was more clearly the case I wouldn't be so angry at the world.