[lapser]

This is inherently not the same, though. Sure, companies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but a company's first and foremost interest is profit for the shareholder. For a person in a relationship, it's about finding a partner that makes them happy. In addition, you are expendable to a company, whereas people build a relationship and become more and more invested over time. Way more than a company becomes invested in an employee.

[blagie]

No, a company's first and foremost interest is not profit for the shareholder.

Corporations don't have interests. They're abstractions -- ways of organizing people to be productive members of society. Individuals within those corporations have interests.

If you look at a company as if it were a sentient human, you'll get to the wrong conclusions. There is no moral imperative for a company to survive. There's a moral imperative to make sure everyone has gainful, productive employment, healthy levels of stress, etc.

If you're at Google, and you can work on:

(1) an advertising user-profiling technology with no social benefit but contribution to Google's bottom line

(2) a civics-focused open-source project with no benefit to shareholder value, but significant value to society

Which would you pick?

If you're at Enron pre-scandal, and can either:

(1) successfully cover up evidence to prevent the scandal; or

(2) blow the whistle

Which do you pick? That's where the moral imperative sits. These things are much more complex with a partner. There's a moral imperative not to betray your partner, as well as one to not support immoral actions, and some balance. With corporations, there is no such moral imperative. If an unethically-organized corporation dies, and resources move into ethically-organized ones, the world is better off.