Change The World?

Money is no longer a priority for entrepreneurs. Instead, many are looking for long-lasting change for the better.
“This is going to change the world.” It’s a statement that, in the internet and startup era, is more en vogue than ever. Interestingly, these days you’re just as likely to hear this coming from the mouth of a venture capitalist, well-monied entrepreneur, or startup founder as you are a politician, NGO administrator or development worker.
Indeed, it’s one of the quirks of modern capitalism that successful people no longer simply aspire to make money with their business, but want to effect positive change on the world at the same time. A couple of decades ago, these two elements appeared to be competing aims. If you wanted to change the world, you went into charity, aid, development, or maybe politics; if you wanted to make money, you headed to Wall Street.
However, as these two aims have fused together to form the amalgam that is today’s philantrocapitalist or starry-eyed startup founder, a funny thing has happened: we now seem to expect the founders of the world’s biggest companies to have noble intentions and the world’s best interests at heart. We’re shocked when we learn our iPhone—a feat of engineering and design that is sold to us on the basis of making our world better and more connected—is actually made in a factory in China run by harsh labor practices. We’re outraged when a company like Facebook or Twitter starts using our data in a way that seems invasive. We use these products and platforms so intimately and often that they become part of our lives, and we completely forget that at their very core they are businesses beholden to shareholders in the same way that a hedge fund or bank is.
We see evidence of this kind of outrage all the time. We expect Uber—who upturned the conventional taxi industry and changed the way we get around urban and sub-urban areas—to treat its employees well. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was recently quoted as saying “Like a lot of people, I have some distrust of Uber and how their drivers don’t really realize at first that they aren’t making much money,” he said, “maybe losing money on the wear and tear of their cars.” But this assessment seems to miss the point that their company is founded on the notion that their drivers are not employees but independent contractors. This hands-off, market-based, capitalist approach runs counter to the friendly and warm image we want an app we constantly use to have, but it’s certainly profitable.
Similarly there has been a lot of outrage directed towards Facebook’s internet.org initiative, which aims to provide internet access to developing countries. However, critics point out that what the social media giant is actually offering is a “walled garden”. In an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, a coalition of voices wrote: “Further, we are deeply concerned that Internet.org has been misleadingly marketed as providing access to the full Internet, when in fact it only provides access to a limited number of Internet-connected services that are approved by Facebook and local ISPs.”
Both of these examples point to something we often tend to overlook: the apps and services we use and love are businesses at heart. While idealism may be a part of what they do, we should not be fooled by their warm and fuzzy marketing and democratized rhetoric. Just as we wouldn’t trust a huge multinational corporation to care for the environment or adhere to labor practices without government enforcement, we can’t expect these companies to have our best interests in part just because they say they do. The moment we stop holding them accountable in the same way we hold governments and other large corporations accountable, we’ve “drunk the Kool aid” ourselves so to speak.

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