If social policies put you out of business, you don’t run a business, you run a racket.

2025 update:

'can't pay artists to train our ai models, it'd put us out of business!'

"Can't stop training algorithms on IP we don't own, would put us out of busuness."

Can't tax the Billionaires, they would run away

Can't implement healthcare for all, it would cost too much

Can't allow people to unionize, it would hurt business

Can't regulate banks, the free market knows best

Can't fix tax loopholes, the rich will just find new ones

...

I could go on. For the every common sense solution there is a lie from the right, why it would not work. Always the same disproven lies, repeated like a mantra.

In workers rights and beyond.

I never understood government regulation being portrayed as bad by the proponents (not profiteers, as in their case there is a much more obvious incentive) of capitalism. As a business owner you are "not allowed" to break the laws of physics. You can't build a factory that makes your product out of air (unless you sell liquid nitrogen I guess). No one makes an argument against physics. If the government decides you also can't build a factory that dumps all it's waste into the residential watersupply that's just the rules of the game now. It's not like your rivals are going to be any more allowed to that, so why be bitch about it? As long as everyone plays by the same rules - be they hard truths or laws that ensure the welfare of the people - there really is no argument to be made against tweaking them. If your business model doesn't leave space for safe waste disposal, should we go with that example, then your business model is just as ridiculous as trying to for example make cars out of thin air.

Can't stop exploiting animals, it'd be bad for the economy

Fuck your business. If it's not even equitable to live, get fucked, social contract broken, and I will just take whatever I need from you by force. I'm not gonna lay down and die because of your fucking profit margin.

I'm almost to the point of thinking that we should abandon business altogether. It seems like it's bad for most of the populous as well as the earth's environment. If we only had some sort of fancy calculating machinery that could effectively manage resources.

This shouldn't be directed at companies. They're the ones that are saying this, but that's what they should do. Find the best route for the betterment of the company and its products.

That is why we need regulation from the government. To narrow the path that companies can take to maximize profits and growth. The real problem, and why so many of these maintained traction until they didn't, is when businesses and government intermingle with each other.

We need a separation of corporate and state, just like church and state, for similar reasons. And the church and state one has always been kind of weak, some times more than others. Government should be impartial and fair to all matters, period.

American companies still profit off exploiting cheap labour, it's just overseas now