Re:Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups
by scollet on Sunday June 14, 2020 @12:32AM
(#23515131)
This is a meaningless comment.
You can mark assets on a spreadsheet, plot profits on a graph, and the result is simply a representation of the abstract concept: finances.
When you factor intent, then money becomes objective. When you factor the ethics of the entity using financial influence, then the result is objective because it affects the real world.
I don't know how else to explain this, and maybe I can't convince you, but real people are affected by these choices.
Profits are never a meaningful metric precisely because they can't be divorced from ethics.
You can mark assets on a spreadsheet, plot profits on a graph, and the result is simply a representation of the abstract concept: finances.
When you factor intent, then money becomes objective. When you factor the ethics of the entity using financial influence, then the result is objective because it affects the real world.
I don't know how else to explain this, and maybe I can't convince you, but real people are affected by these choices.
Profits are never a meaningful metric precisely because they can't be divorced from ethics.