• helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    My company’s owner/CEO can stay, gives us all sizeable profit share bonuses. During covid people didn’t get layed off, even though there was no work. Sure hours were reduced, but work was found around the shop to keep people busy as much as possible.

    In other words, small business owners that care about employee and their clients.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      Who stay small because they don’t squeeze their employees and their clients to grow. They care about risks when opening a new location, even if those risks are primarily to the people they’d hire.

      What’s it called when something grows out of control without regard to the welfare of their peers or the sustainability of the system?

  • EvilZ@thelemmy.club
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    2 days ago

    I would rather focus on billionaire and millionaire than CEO since both are not automatically interchangeable… .

    You can be a CEO In a small business without being a millionaire of the same category as the one of United HealthCare

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      This thread is cursed. First, “lets make a list of CEOs who are incredibly cool aktuly”. Then “you know who are better than the mega-rich? The delusional wanna-bes who nickel and dime everyone they do business with in the vain hope of hitting the big time”.

      Worst human being I ever worked for was a guy who’d franchised out a college exam prep business and expected me to be on call 24/7 for $250/week. Guy was charging $2500/student for a six week course and my class had ten of them. Fuck small business owners.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Cloudflare provides valuable services this day on age but they’re building into a dangerous monolith of internet structure. Not sure how comfortable I am with that

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Definitely valve. Say what you will about the man, or don’t, I’m not your manager, but he has kept the same formula to steam since it was created. While other empires crumble and fall to enshittification, valve simply is.

      We need Gabe to stick around as long as possible. If he wants to buy yachts and gamble with the money he has, let him. He didn’t get to where he is by chasing every last dime and dollar, he got there gradually by running the company in such a way that it served the user base. As long as Valve’s Software continues to focus on the user, we should leave this one alone.

      • uniquethrowagay@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        He’s filthy rich and makes some of his money with gambling addiction. But his company invests million into Linux and I really enjoy Valve’s products. There are thousands of worse CEOs and companies.

      • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Gaben is number 107 on the Forbes top 400 billionaires list.

        Dude is fucking stacked

  • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Mike “My Pillow” Lindell… HEAR ME OUT… I don’t agree with his politics, but the dude is hilarious.

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      I couldn’t find mirth in his behavior. It disturbs me to greatly how completely a man is willing to hollow himself out so entirely, so they can be filled entirely with nothing but hatred.

      So I must disagree. What humor is actually found in misery?

  • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    CEO of Ben &Jerry’s. They are not just posting the black square on their insta and then moving on, like half their posts are about fighting inequity, encouraging people to vote for actual human rights, openly pro abortion, pro immigrant rights, pro black rights, pro women’s right, about fighting climate change etc. they are walking the walk, conservative dollars be damned

    • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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      3 days ago

      Also AFAIK they are one of the few companies that have been removed from the BDS list after improving behavior and leaving illegal Palestinian settlements. Recently they sued their parent company for silencing their statements on Palestinian rights.

      I don’t love ever setting any people or corporations on a pedestal. Nevertheless this is reassuring behavior to see amidst all the Starbucks, AirBnB and Re/Maxes of the world.

    • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zip
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      It’s a shame they don’t fully move to vegan ice cream

      Edit: When the very base ingredient of their ice cream is based on exploitation and torture, how much are their initiatives really worth? It’s virtue signalling at its best

      Plus I’m yet so see someone giving a valid reason as to why they shouldn’t. Just tell me you don’t care and I’ll move along

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        Why should they? I have no problem with people being vegan and I have no problem with vegan food being provided as an option but I don’t think vegans have the right to dictate to everyone else how they live their lives.

        • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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          A. Ben & Jerry’s moving to exclusively vegan ice cream is in no way forcing people to live their lives a certain way. Recipes are not protected by copyright law so anyone can make and sell ice cream however they want.

          B. The dairy industry wreaks havoc on the planet. It would benefit everyone if the dairy industry disappeared or at least shrank

        • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zip
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          Humans are literally forcing animals to live and die by their life styles. The only ones forcing anybody here are humans.

          There is no sound reason as to why B&J doesn’t fully move away from non-vegan ice cream. They’ve proven that they can produce vegan flavours, that they cost them the same (probably less even), that they taste well enough for them to remain among the flavours they offer. It’s just stigma and prejudice that leads to people shutting off completely when veganism is even mentioned.

          Realistically, like be frank with yourself for a second and don’t resort to a kneejerk reaction: would you mind if your ice cream was vegan? It’s a luxury item, it’s a sweet, so it’s not essential. Most sweets you eat are vegan already. What’s one more? Plus, you end up helping a bunch of animals.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            3 days ago

            Okay but that’s something you care about.

            What we’re talking about is finding the lowest common denominator of what can be considered acceptable by the general populace, It is not about becoming the best version of ourselves.

            Let’s not muddy the waters by making this about something other than basic human decency.

  • Ænima@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    This CEO, Gabe Newell, and (if he was still alive) the founder of Little Caesars, who, if I recall correctly, secretly paid for Rosa Parks apartment until her death.

    • greenhorn@lemm.ee
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      The founder of Little Caesars was a typical magnate developer who bought up much of downtown Detroit and let it rot until he received tax incentives to build, and kicked out many low income residents from apartments he let sit until they got city money. His family continues this tradition. The Rosa Parks thing is the only good thing I’ve ever heard of that man and his family do.

    • tino@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Gabe Newell owns fleets of yachts and private jets. The man is using your sweet gaming money to burn the planet.

      • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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        Yeah we need a source.

        Also, as far as CEO’s go, speaking from an outside perspective obviously, the man is wonderful. Valve makes solid business decisions in favor of long term growth instead of short term profits. They do this buy making sure that their platform is easy, safe, reliable, and not abusive for their consumers. They institute their own consumer protections into the platform that make them less money, just to make sure they remain a place we WANT to shop, when everyone else tries to make themselves the only place to shop, and then fucking over their consumers at every opportunity. Valve is a fucking case study on how companies should be ran, and a perfect display of how modern american capitalism is ruining everything, by being the antithesis of it.

    • DokPsy@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Add Steve Wozniak to the list of the ones to be protected. The Woz has done more to pull people up and we should all aspire to that level if we ever have the means.

      • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Woz isn’t a CEO and was stabbed in the back so many times he makes the Ten of Swords look like a sign for future friendships

        • DokPsy@lemmy.world
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          He’s been on multiple board of directors and founded several orgs. While not a CEO, he’s certainly in the same sphere and must be protected.

          • Fiona@discuss.tchncs.de
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            Woz is the true Tech Jesus

            No that would be Stallman. In so many ways, but most importantly by establishing the concept of free software and pushing hard for progressive values. Also by being unpopular with the masses.

          • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            in terms of being betreayed? sure.

            In terms of being the salvation and the light? Nah, that’s Linus

            • DokPsy@lemmy.world
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              Linus is the drunken uncle of the tech backbone, let’s be real here. Woz is the supportive one after being in abusive relationship after abusive relationship.

              After every instance of getting relatively screwed over (he still made bank, just not as much) he still founded and ran groups that focussed on pushing the envelope of tech or improving less advantaged youth into stem fields

              • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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                Linus is the drunken uncle of the tech backbone, let’s be real here. Woz is the supportive one after being in abusive relationship after abusive relationship.

                Woz is Bill Dautrive, Linus is Rusty Shackleford :P

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      Nah people need to stop jerking off Gabe and valve I general.

      They started predatory lootboxes, ridiculously expensive cosmetics, early access, owning a licence instead of the actual game, had to be sued just to get refund policy and the vast vast majority of his wealth has come from just skimming a bit off from people who actually make games he distributes.

      If you look at valve without the “omg steams sale XXXDDD”" mentality, then they are no better than ea or Activision.

      • Scratch@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Do you understand how much work goes into distributing terabytes of content around the world?

        Valve give you AAA games. For free. No material restrictions on game-play or competitive advantage. They pay for the server hosting, anti-cheat and matchmaking.

        The provide a storefront that anyone can sell their games on. And they don’t contract you into exclusivity periods like others do. Do you think it’s coincidence that they have, by far, the largest games store in the world?

        They have supported games, for free, for over 10 years. You could have 10 years of world-class online gaming (CS:GO/2 or DOTA2) and have not spent a single penny, with no hit to your ability to play and win.

        Sure, they’re not perfect, they are at their core a profit-driven company and they can do things that are not in the consumers best interest.

        But to compare them to shitbags like EA and Activision/Blizzard is an incredible thing to do. And removes any weight from your argument.

        • gmtom@lemmy.world
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          I knew comments like this would turn up. But it still saddens me that even Lemmy users, who ar in general much more cognizant of these things and less likely to get caught up in the circlejerk, can’t acknowledge that Gabe Newell isn’t your best freind, he is in fact just another money hungry corporate CEO.

          You say comparing valve to say, blizzard is incredible, but the points you use to defend valve can also be made of them.

          Is Overwatch 2 not free? With no pay 2 win features? Does Blizzard not pay for the server hosting anti cheat and matchmaking? Do they not also support there game for years? ( also I find that funny given the fact the TF2 community is going ballistic right now over the fact valve isn’t doing shit to support it against cheaters and bots)

          Yes they provide a store front anyone can sell on. Including shitty asset flips, early access pump and dumps, predatory spyware etc. And are very reluctant to do litersly anything about it when those scams are called to attention.

          And again, that storefront isn’t some altruistic endeavour Gabe took on out the kindness of his heart. No he’s made BILLIONS by exploiting the worl of others, just like every other billionaire. And if providing a basic service makes up for your predatory bullshit, well we might as well let literally every other CEO off the hook then right?

          It’s not a bad in to admit you got sucked in my propaganda or marketing or just general Internet circlejerks, what is a bad thing is to vehemently refuse any introspection on your current beliefs and defend them to the death simply because they are what you currently believe. I really hope I can reach out to people on Lemmy and that you guys can actually take a step and try to look at things objectively instead of doubling down.

          • Scratch@sh.itjust.works
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            I knew comments like this would turn up. But it still saddens me that even Lemmy users, who ar in general much more cognizant of these things and less likely to get caught up in the circlejerk, can’t acknowledge that Gabe Newell isn’t your best freind, he is in fact just another money hungry corporate CEO.

            I encourage you to point out where I did that. I think, you’ll find, I agree with you, for the most part.

            You say comparing valve to say, blizzard is incredible, but the points you use to defend valve can also be made of them.

            Is Overwatch 2 not free? With no pay 2 win features? Does Blizzard not pay for the server hosting anti cheat and matchmaking? Do they not also support there game for years? ( also I find that funny given the fact the TF2 community is going ballistic right now over the fact valve isn’t doing shit to support it against cheaters and bots)

            Yes, one of the two companies you listed have one free-to-play game. If you want to focus on that and ignore the decades of anti-consumer, money-grubbing behavior, I don’t think I can help you.

            Yes they provide a store front anyone can sell on. Including shitty asset flips, early access pump and dumps, predatory spyware etc. And are very reluctant to do litersly anything about it when those scams are called to attention.

            Are you referring to Steam: Greenlight? Because, you know, they shut that down 8 years ago. Or, maybe you’re referring to the mod marketplace they tried to start, and then shut down because of the backlash. That was 9 years ago.

            And again, that storefront isn’t some altruistic endeavour Gabe took on out the kindness of his heart. No he’s made BILLIONS by exploiting the worl of others, just like every other billionaire. And if providing a basic service makes up for your predatory bullshit, well we might as well let literally every other CEO off the hook then right?

            Actually, Steam originated as an effort to block Microsoft’s plans to turn PC gaming into a walled garden, like the consoles are. Sure, Valve make money off it, but there IS a consumer-friendly reason for it to exist.

            It’s not a bad in to admit you got sucked in my propaganda or marketing or just general Internet circlejerks, what is a bad thing is to vehemently refuse any introspection on your current beliefs and defend them to the death simply because they are what you currently believe. I really hope I can reach out to people on Lemmy and that you guys can actually take a step and try to look at things objectively instead of doubling down.

            Try this yourself.

            Your post has an arrogance to it that smacks of “I’m always right, agree with me or be wrong.”. I’m not saying it’s intentional, but it comes across pretty strongly.
            Also, don’t pigeon-hole people who disagree you into GABEN4LYEF RIDE OR DIE fanatics, and we might just have a constructive conversation.

            • gmtom@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              one of the two companies you listed have one free-to-play game. If you want to focus on that and ignore the decades of anti-consumer, money-grubbing behavior, I don’t think I can help you.

              That’s my point to you exactly. You’re ignoring all of valves anti-consumer bullshit because they made a video game you like.

              Are you referring to Steam: Greenlight?

              No, I’m just referring to the steam store itself, that just allows all that shit to this day.

              Sure, Valve make money off it, but there IS a consumer-friendly reason for it to exist.

              So what’s the “consumer friendly” reason they don’t let you actually own your games?

              Try this yourself.

              I did. I used to be on the “omg Gaben so cool! Steam sale take my money you XD” circlejerk too. Then one day I heard about his fleet of luxury mega-yatchs and that made me look at things properly, that he was again just another billionaire leaching off the work of others.

              Also, don’t pigeon-hole people who disagree you into GABEN4LYEF RIDE OR DIE fanatics, and we might just have a constructive conversation.

              I’m not. That’s what you are doing to yourself by just completely disregarding decades of anti-consumer bullshit because they made a couple games you like.

              You’re just outright dismissing undeniable shitty behaviour from Valve for entirely superficial reasons, then when I show you you’re justifications can be used with other gaming companies that get hate, you dismiss that without reason too.

              You will probably consider this over dramatic but this interaction has 100% genuinely killed my last remaining scrap of hope for humanity. If people on Lemmy who are generally both left wing and intelligent, can’t even acknowledge that billionaires that push anti-consumer bullshit are bad (even when they make a bideo game you like) then what hope is there of the general public understanding that? We’re truly never going to change anything and we’re just going to let the billionaires destroy us.

              Thank you, goodnight.

              • Scratch@sh.itjust.works
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                Until you acknowledge that my position has nuance and is not diametrically opposed to yours, there is no reason to engage in debate.

                You’ve repeatedly misrepresented my stance to make it an easy target for dismissal.

                I asked you to point out where I made the claims you attributed to me, you did not.

                I think you also need to give up the idea that everyone on a given platform will be as ‘enlightened’ as you are.

                Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions. There is infinite room for microscopic differences. Straw-manning and pigeon-holing does nothing but annoy people and make you look boorish. Nobody wants to engage with that.

                • gmtom@lemmy.world
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                  I will acknowledge that if and when you make a position with actual nuance. “You can’t compare Valce to Activision because valve makes free games” isn’t nuanced and is just ignorant.

                  I asked you to point out where I made the claims you attributed to me, you did not.

                  ??? No you didn’t? I even just re read this whole thread. You literally never asked that???

                  I think you also need to give up the idea that everyone on a given platform will be as ‘enlightened’ as you are.

                  Clearly.

                  Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions.

                  Yep, some people have class consciousness and actually want to talk about the failures of capitalism and the atrocity of people having billions of dollars while others starve and live on the streets. And others want to defend those billionaires because they run a company that made a video game they liked 20 years ago.

      • Maxxie
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        3 days ago

        Truth.

        Valve been private company allows them to avoid some shortsighted decisions of public corps, but they’re no saints.

        We need more stores, with an interstore protocol allowing you to move your licenses. EU get on that please

      • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        He also normalized hosting kid’s content and adult/gambling content on the same platform. Anyone who tried to open up a game store that also sold adult material would get crucified nowadays.

        The reason Steam is praised so much is because unlike EA and Activision, regardless of what they try to push that they shouldn’t, they do put in the effort of going back and looking at issues from gamer’s eyes. Those cosmetics? They came about at a time when P2W was much more of a concern, and paying for something merely visual was considered much more acceptable. Early access? It came about from trying to open up development to more indies instead of just the big devs and publishers. Licensing instead of owning? The alternative were much more costly physical copies that also degraded with time and which you had to maintain a backup of yourself. If your local game store didn’t have it, you were screwed, and there could be no discounts. Porn on the platform? Don’t care, not a child and I’m responsible.

        Even then, I still damn Valve on both normalizing licenses on a subscription service that were it not for its market dominance could easily be teetering right now along with most people’s game library’s, and for not bothering to make an adult/gambling only version of a game store. GOG needs a competitor (remember Devotion and now Nine Sols), and it has none. It is possible to make money and be a digital distribution service without being a subscription service. There should be far more distance between adult and predatory content and normal gaming content, not all parents are responsible and it more easily creates communities predators can target from overlapping interests.

        • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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          Making the claim that adult content = predators preying on children has a couple issues:

          1. Predators are incredibly rare, and it has been repeatedly shown that these claims of predators-behind-every-account are blown out of proportion for political scare reasons (see Satanic Panic, all of human history for more examples).
          2. Even if the above weren’t true, why on earth would those people be spending their time on adult content instead of, say, roblox or minecraft? You know, games for children, that children play?

          The debate over steam hosting adult content is some really regressive stuff. An alternative take, the one I hold, is “It’s really heartening to see a major content platform not giving in to the conservative moralists that view anime tiddies as somehow damaging to the fabric of society. Making sexuality a less shameful topic for discussion also, conveniently, reduces ‘shame’ as an effective lever for preying on children, and makes them more likely to come forward and tell people when they’re actually in danger”.

          • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
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            All it takes is another client, a lot of argument for not wanting to take one iota of minimal responsibility. Predators are not rare, they literally fuel television series regarding them. They don’t have to be many to be a threat, either, all it takes is a small number of very active ones. They do target children’s game, having adult content facilities introducing children to it as “lol lemme gift u / giv u dis CD key its so sik”. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/07/us/video-games-child-sex-abuse.html - What alternate reality do you live in?

            • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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              The first sentence of that article lists Minecraft and Fortnite.
              Neither of those games are available on Steam.

              So, and stop me if this is too wild a conclusion, it maybe just might possibly be the case that having separate storefronts doesn’t actually have any impact on sexual predation of minors in videogames.

              (Edit: actually, none of the games listed in that article are available on steam. Did… did you even read it?)

              • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
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                You were the completely utter moron who said predators “are incredibly rare”, I was just disproving it. Now you are just moving the goalpost. Yeah, time to disconnect from pervs who are asking to handhold them through basic logic they don’t want to see when all they will do is try to troll on whatever minutiae they think they can focus on to move the goalpost again.

                • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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                  That’s not moving the goalpost, that’s keeping the goalpost on the original topic. “Is steam making online predation worse by not having two separate storefronts” - Answer: Clearly, no, since there are multiple storefronts and that has nothing to do with how children are exploited online.

                  But if you want to talk about the rarity of predators (I’m taking the numbers in the article here): 1500 reported cases / year of sextortion in the US and nation partners is pretty damn rare. Even assuming non-reporting rates are 500x the value given in that article, that’s still 750,000 victims among ~1,000,000,000 people, or a 0.00075% victim rate. You’re only twice as likely to have been victimized per year as you are to have been struck by lightning. I don’t… like, I don’t know what else to call that but rare.

                  (The above numbers are just about sextortion, a very broad category of crime and that which is the crime in question here. Broadly, “pressuring kids online to send naked photos of themselves”. This number doesn’t include physical abuse crimes, I did confirm that in their sources.)

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.ml
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    none of them. you don’t need a CEO to keep a drink at $1 a can. I know it’s a meme but y’all libs will go too far with it and coopt it into “awww we can’t hurt Elon musk he’s too uWu smol bean” by the weekend. I saw what you did with brat summer.

    • PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee
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      No clue what libs you’re talking about, gonna guess ur using the word lib too broadly when you mean neo-lib. All the actual libs i know have had guillotine on their wishlist for years now.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      You went from “I like the tea is cheap” to “I bet you’re in love with Elon musk and I hate liberals” in like… No steps at all.

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      You want someone at the top of the management hierarchy. You can call that guy a CEO or not, but it’s the same job. You can take away private investment and have the workers own the means of production at that company, but it’s still the same job. You can flatten that hierarchy until it resembles the terrain of Kansas, but it’s still the same job. You can pay that guy only somewhat more than the median wage at the company, but it’s still the same job.

    • Zapp@sh.itjust.works
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      'Frade not. They are currently executing union busting measures against their workers.

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        3 days ago

        Did they actually go through with it? I remember them attempting it, but then immediately backing down and issuing a very reasonable response letter basically saying they were clearly in the wrong and allowed the union to form. I could totally be unaware of any more recent developments though.

  • GambaKufu@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Couple of British examples of what should be the standard for modern business:

    Julian Richer, founder of Richer Sounds (hifi store in the UK), seems like one of the better capitalists around. He signed over majority control of the company to an employee trust when he turned 60, donates 15% of their profit to charity, runs a nonprofit dedicated to exposing corporate tax avoidance, campaigns against zero hours contracts, and devotes company resources to promoting unsigned bands: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Richer

    James Timpson recently stepped down as CEO of Timpson, another UK retailer that specialises in things like key cutting, shoe repairs, passport photos etc. He made it company policy to hire people who had been to prison and help them get back on their feet, and his campaign for prison reform saw him step down from the company to become Minister for Prisons in the current government. The company has a “Director of Happiness” who is paid to keep the front line staff happy, resulting in policies like getting the day off work on your kid’s first day of school, compassionate leave for the death of a pet, etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timpson_(retailer)

    • towerful@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      Timpsons apparently has really interesting business models.
      A friend of mine has worked on a few of their conferences, and apparently it’s both fascinating and they come across as a genuinely wholesome business.

      It’s a franchise, but the franchisee (ie the shop) has complete control over what they sell and what services they provide (I dunno if there are any guard rails). So if they want to offer dry cleaning, they can. If they want to offer phone repairs, they can. If they want to only partially offer something, then they can rely on the Timpsons service network to provide the actual service (so dry cleaning without owning dry cleaning equipment).

      https://www.timpson.co.uk/about-timpson

      The management teams delegate authority but retain responsibility and we have only 2 rules:

      • Look the part
      • Put the money in the till

      And apparently they look after their staff really well. Actually good/useful perks & benefits. In addition to the compassionate leave you’ve mentioned, I’m sure my friend said something about timpsons owning some property that they allow their staff to book for free (like free accomodation for holidays). Or maybe they do block bookings of stuff, or something. I wasn’t hugely paying attention tbh.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        4 days ago

        He didn’t kill anyone by denying them insurance or anything like that tho. Just took a commission on every game sold on Steam, a platform nobody’s forced to use.

        • HyperCube@fedia.io
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          4 days ago

          And by running a casino that rakes in millions of dollars off kids. I can appreciate the positives he’s done with Steam, but I’m not about to ignore the negatives.

          • MonkeyBusiness@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            Yeah, he’s getting kids to play at a virtual casino that has absolutely no chance of returning and financial winnings, but he’s not taking millions of dollars off of kids. Considering those kids have the ability to own a gaming computer, I’m assuming the vast majority of that money comes from their parents. I don’t condone the kids gambling, but he’s not taking hard-earned money from kids that are in need and leaving them broke.

            • Tech With Jake@lemm.ee
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              4 days ago

              Loot boxes are effectively gambling as there is no guarantee on what you’ll get. People in general can get addicted to the rush of getting that rare item the first time (which is usually what happens with a first open to get you hooked) and then either buy more loot boxes or the keys to open them.

          • MonkeyBusiness@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            Reminder, 1 billion dollars is:

            • 1,000 millions
            • 1 million thousands
            • At the highest minimum wage in the world (Denmark @ USD$44,252/year), it would take just under 22,598 years to earn (11.2 Jesuses-ago)
            • If a Dane earning min wage were to work 24 hrs/day non-stop, it would take them just under 4,977 years to earn (2.46 Jesuses-ago).

            Billionaires have all that money even after their expenses. It’s their “savings account”, but their savings account makes much more interest than ours because they are actually invested in the market. If they need money beyond their regular pay, they use their investments as collateral for loans with interest rates lower than investment returns. They’re making money even if they are spending it.

        • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          When did I compare those two things as being equally as bad? What the hell is with this black and white stance in my replies, absolutely wild to see people defending a man owning 1 billion dollars in yachts.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Management is a skill. You can collectivize property relations and keep the positions of Capital Managers. Moreover, in underdeveloped sectors, Markets are a good way to rapidly develop a framework that can then be folded into the public sector and centrally planned by the degree to which it has developed.

    Do we need Capital Owners? No, we don’t need any. We will still need managers and directors of Capital, even within Communism, ie Central Planners. If the question is how many Capitalists do we need, the answer is 0. If the question is how many Capital managers and planners do we need, the number is much higher than 0.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Management is a skill

      Of course it is. And production is a skill. Why is one being paid so much more than the other?

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        Because they have all the power within Capitalism. I’m a Communist, I want to collectivize property, we can have economic planning of public property and those positions would look similar to CEOs without the ownership aspect.

        People seem to be misinterpreting my comment as justification for Capitalism, when it’s the opposite.

    • inkrifle@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Seconding this, Paul Newman was probably the best person to ever come out of the state of Ohio.

      He co-founded Newman’s Own, a food company which donates all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2021, these donations totaled over US$570 million. Newman continued to found charitable organizations such as the SeriousFun Children’s Network in 1988 and the Safe Water Network in 2006.

      (Pasted from his Wikipedia page)

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      And, sadly, no longer available in Canada for some reason :-(

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Privately owned at least means they aren’t slaves to their quarterly reports. Every time a company goes public, they’re subject to the delusion of infinite growth in a finite system.

        • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Really depends on the ownership structure. Backbiting private boards composed of kids and grandkids of founders that are just trying to claw as much out of their inheritance as possible are just as toxic. Coops are about the only thing I can respect.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        In fairness SpaceX isn’t run by Musk, which is why it’s actually doing constructive things and not getting into culture war arguments every 15 minutes.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Same with their frozen pizzas? I had never bought one before, then saw they were on sale the other day and figured I’d try them. Think it was 4.99 a piece. (Bogo 9.99) The pepperoni and ricotta one wasnt bad. The sourdough wasn’t very decipherable, but better than many cheaper pizzas. The 5 cheese I can’t speak for… As I overcooked it. The timer went off and I checked it, said to myself the cheese could melt a bit more and closed the oven. Saw the bottle of strawberry wine I was making didn’t look like it was bleeding air properly next to the sink and decided I should slowly turn the cap to drain the pressure and let the fermentation continue. (Have gallons of strawberries I froze left over still from spring that I grew). Turned the lid a bit and it of course exploded so much worse than I expected. Ceiling, floor, cabinets and everything within 10 feet got hit. I went to the bathroom and took my shirt off washed myself, started cleaning up the mess and cleaning the ceiling, cabinets and finally the floor when I remembered, oh shit the pizza… Yeah. The cheese was melted by then… just a bit darker than intended