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A comment on To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided. Parent comment

Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by paulgb on Sunday November 22, 2020 @08:30PM (#25182737)
Not really? The point I get from GP is that the way America is set up, corporations have a lot of say in (de facto) health care and employment policy. In most other countries, these things are decided democratically rather than though the market. We could have arguments all day on which is a better system, but it's hard not to admit that the American system makes corporations into more political actors.
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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by winston_smith on Sunday November 22, 2020 @09:13PM (#25182944)
They just listed off a standard set of "europe good, USA bad" talking points. The "everything is political" argument lets you tie any political issue you want to any company you want, so that you can pressure them into being more political about the issues you care about.
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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by lazyasciiart on Sunday November 22, 2020 @10:30PM (#25183327)
So do you feel that it is a politically neutral choice for an employer to decide that the health insurance they sponsor for employees cannot be used to cover an abortion?
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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by winston_smith on Sunday November 22, 2020 @10:55PM (#25183428)
Nobody's claiming perfect political neutrality. The claim is that it's bad for companies to get political in unnecessary ways. Inasmuch as Hobby Lobby decided to push their politics and religion on their employees via their healthcare package, then we shouldn't be surprised at the result.
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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by dane-pgp on Sunday November 22, 2020 @11:35PM (#25183629)
> Hobby Lobby decided to push their politics and religion on their employees via their healthcare package

And/or did the government decide to push their politics and religion on Hobby Lobby via their healthcare legislation?

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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by winston_smith on Monday November 23, 2020 @12:07AM (#25183767)
Absolutely, because politics is what government is specifically for, unlike, say, toy stores and individual people doing their non-government jobs.

(edit: not endorsing either the government's position, just saying that yes, government is exactly where we see politics being forced on things)

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Re:To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided by dane-pgp on Monday November 23, 2020 @02:54AM (#25184482)
Then it's worth noting that it is easier for a person to change which employer they work for than a business owner to change which government creates laws that apply to their business.

I accept, though, that corporations are artificial constructs that exist (ostensibly) to benefit humans, and therefore placing restrictions and duties on corporations is inherently preferable to placing them on humans themselves.

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