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Comment by tonymet | Hacker News Reader

Which is better: benefiting the world with a selfish agenda, or hurting the world with an altruistic one?

Who cares about their interests? If it helps people get educated and improve their lot?

Who does it hurt? Everyone. I think it hurts everyone when we allow bigger companies (or a powerful few) to steer the education system. That should be left up to a democratic process. Why should Facebook, Google, etc. be the ones to decide that education is only about getting a job (and specifically about getting a job at Facebook, Google, etc.)?

I'm not sure I understand how that hurt actually takes place. These companies are essentially acting as charities, donating a portion of their profits to reduce the cost of a tech education. Some people who might not have been able to pursue education in tech are now able to. Do those people not benefit? Do the companies not benefit? Then how is society harmed? Would society really be better off if these companies remitted that money to shareholders as dividends, as is their right?

It seems to me that the complaint begins and ends with the assumption that if something is good for a big corporation then it must be bad for society at large, and vice versa.

It's not just funding, it's when they steer education programs by threat of removing funding, or by providing free stuff or services; sometimes even more directly.

Education time is finite. If you focus on some specific you may miss out on general or a different specific. (Reminds me of a database course focused on Microsoft tooling... half the technologies now dead.)

The worst people are the ones who truly believe they know what's best for you, and therefore feel justified to ram it down your throat.

No, I think the people that know what's good for them and ram that down your throat are worse.

I think you'll find that religious wars are more vicious than empire building.

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