Mitchell, it's my pleasure to be here today with you in the Collège des Bernardins.
You've played a key role in the success of Mozilla and its main product, Firefox.
So, Mitchell, this notion of
working for greater benefits, not just for capitalist interests,
is very strong.
From the general public's perspective, Firefox had a fantastic mission
which was to protect our privacy.
Yes.
And a belief that open processes are important for security,
for society to understand, for public benefit.
I think the structural piece has to be addressed because you can have,
as we actually do, many employees deeply invested in Silicon Valley
who long and strive in their work to make things better.
That's a very legitimate,
at least in my view, of the people I live and work with,
a very legitimate and heartfelt desire,
working within the structure of the market.
And so, you can see some changes now,
You know, in the United States, for
a long period, there's been
the Chicago School, with its view that it is
a dereliction of duty for a director of an organization
to think about anything other than maximizing financial return.
Right.
And so, I think of that as the equivalent
of making our corporations psychopaths,
because when you
encounter a human with no empathy, no
compassion, thinking only of what feels good for them.
What is best for me?
That's a sociopath or a psychopath.
That's not a healthy person.
And that used to be, and still is, that way.
Like, you have directors, well-meaning, thinking, "Well, can I
consider something else than maximum return?"
So, that's an unhealthy system for a society, right?
It's not an Adam Smith-like mandate.
But so, you start to see some of that changing in the United States.
And so, the B Corp movement is now an accepted way to say, actually,
we might care about the environment, or we might care about the community
we live in, or we might care about democracy,
we might care about something else.
Thank you for this, Mitchell.