Can business do good, or does business have to suck?
Hank said in 2010 that corporations have no conscience; by 2020 he called business good when it treats people fairly and creates value. The brothers run Good Store, which gives all its profit to charity.
Axis: business can be a force for good ... business is inherently harmful
Concept: capitalism
Positions by date: 47 records in 47 videos. The position was refined (2011, 2016), never reversed, in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10-11 | first on record | John argues the free market is in many ways a great thing: freely flowing loan capital creates wealth and freer markets get richer. | Puppy Elephant Defends Capitalism 00:00:50 |
| 2011-01-26 | refine | John says he is a capitalist who believes in free and open markets but not unregulated ones, and that some things, like pharmaceuticals, markets can't do. | I OWN WARNER CHILCOTT! 00:00:57 |
| 2011-09-26 | restate | Against the popular view, John argues bankers who fund good ideas create jobs and can reduce world suck. | Awesome Bankers? 00:02:55 |
| 2012-09-25 | restate | John: DFTBA Records is their continuing attempt to build a business without being evil. | Do Businesses Need to Suck? 00:03:24 |
| 2016-04-05 | refine | John argues Monopoly's history, a community's game credited and paid to one man, is a story of capitalism failing rather than working. | What's Wrong with Monopoly? 00:03:01 |
| 2018-01-09 | restate | John doesn't buy the argument that this makes corporations or the people who work at them evil. | Your Attention 00:02:49 |
| 2023-06-20 | restate | John says the biggest reason he enjoys the job despite its meetings is the companies' whys: every company has a problem to solve, and theirs are, in his opinion, the best. | Reflections from a Terrible CEO 00:03:33 |
| 2023-06-27 | restate | John says he has never been so enthusiastic about a for-profit-for-charity venture in his life. | Alone on the Cancer Boat: A Vlogbrothers Reunion 00:00:00 |
| 2023-07-11 | restate | John says J&J is not an evil monolith but a company of people, most of whom he believes want their work to make the world better. | Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson 00:04:52 |
| 2023-08-01 | restate | John argues corporations too often mask or invisibilize the work behind their products so consumers won't think about it; the Awesome Coffee Club wants buyers to know its coffee's makers are talented and passionate. | Three Mornings 00:04:31 |
| 2023-09-12 | restate | John says Danaher choosing profits over people is not inevitable: most people want to do right and sometimes just need polite but impassioned reminders. | Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Danaher and Cepheid 00:07:23 |
| 2023-09-14 | restate | John says no child dreams of being a pharma executive who limits access; most such people want to make the world better and need polite but insistent reminders that this doesn't mean maximizing short-term profit. | Talking Tuberculosis, GeneXpert, J&J, and more with MY HEROES 00:33:48 |
| 2023-09-19 | restate | John says advocacy should reflect that these companies have made choices that expand access to diagnostics for those who need them most. | So, um.... GOOD NEWS?!?!?! 00:03:55 |
| 2023-09-30 | restate | John gives J&J huge credit for showing it cares about patient access, even though it acted under heavy pressure, including from governments such as South Africa's. | An Incredible Update 00:02:00 |
| 2023-12-05 | restate | John finds it most interesting that the trial used existing drugs in innovative combinations rather than proving a patentable billion-dollar compound, the kind of trial drug companies have little incentive to run. | MASSIVE Tuberculosis News 00:03:24 |
| 2024-01-16 | restate | The idea from the start was that by working with really talented people, starting businesses could raise more money than the brothers could ever donate on their own, and that has happened. | The Bank of Nerdfighteria 00:01:55 |
| 2024-03-26 | restate | John argues that if a company's primary obligation is to shareholders rather than employees, customers or the social order, the only way to make Danaher do right is reputational harm exceeding its profit from overcharging the poor. | I Own Danaher 00:03:06 |
| 2024-10-30 | restate | John says Good Store sells better versions of things people already need, and the money goes to Sierra Leone instead of to some billionaire. | Sipping the Tea with Hank 00:05:13 |
| 2024-11-13 | restate | John says they work as hard on the supply chain as on anything, because Good Store gives all profit to charity and doesn't want to make the world worse through a bad supply chain. | Some New Things… 00:19:29 |
| 2024-11-19 | restate | John says that income is what lets the brothers run Good Store and donate 100% of its profit to charity; he will report how much that profit is and whom it benefits. | Let's Talk about Money 00:00:16 |
| 2025-03-11 | restate | John says that instead of enriching billionaires by buying something like Tide, he is fighting coral reef devastation. | Hank Green's Brother 00:02:50 |
| 2025-11-24 | restate | John urges viewers to do their holiday shopping at Good Store, where 100% of the profit goes to charity, instead of at Walmart, where the profit supports the Walton family. | Good Store Holiday Gift Guide LIVE with Hank and John 00:01:16 |
| 2026-05-26 | restate | John thinks the private equity people meant Crash Course doesn't make economic sense, not for lack of views but because it is free and expensive to make, needing a huge team. | Hank Green Is a Fool 00:02:15 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-02-08 | first on record | Hank says corporations have one philosophy, make more money; they do good only when it sells more, and have no conscience. | Hypocrisy: All They Want is Money 00:03:29 |
| 2010-12-27 | restate | Hank says he and John, now in the t-shirt business, want to run it in a way that does not increase world suck. | To: You - - From: The Vlogbrothers 00:00:31 |
| 2013-05-24 | restate | Hank: a sustainable business treats users as people you need rather than hours to monetize; he prefers businesses built on real money and real creations. | What's Up with Start Ups 00:02:31 |
| 2017-07-28 | restate | Saying it is not a simple story and others research it better, Hank wants more people to know the joy of starting their own thing, giving someone a job and building a team that creates value. | Why You Haven't Started a Business 00:03:15 |
| 2018-11-09 | restate | Hank believes in these projects not because they are good businesses but because they are sustainable engines for doing good, and because they bring him joy. | I Don't Know What Work Is 00:03:06 |
| 2019-02-22 | restate | Hank says it's just about people coming together to solve problems and make things people like. | I Don't Want The Same Things Anymore 00:03:25 |
| 2019-04-26 | restate | Hank argues it is important to understand business, a weird, imaginary structure that is nonetheless the foundation of much of how humans create value today. | It's Time to Care About "Business" 00:02:26 |
| 2019-07-26 | restate | As long as business leaders keep believing the lies of Econ 101, Hank says, we will be destroying value when we think we are creating it. | The Best $10,000 I Ever Spent 00:02:59 |
| 2020-01-17 | restate | Hank sees business as good: employing people, treating them fairly, creating value for the world and finding ways for that value to sustain itself. | It's Like Shark Tank, but for Charity 00:00:30 |
| 2020-11-27 | restate | Hank questions the one thing companies won't compromise on, making money: a company selling needed, easy-to-make goods could give all the money away. | Finally Launching this Project!!! 00:00:50 |
| 2022-07-22 | restate | The brothers are trying to find out whether they can make things people really love and build companies that give away all their profits, so the money makes the world better rather than the owners' lives. | What are These Boys Doing?? 00:00:33 |
| 2023-07-14 | restate | Hank says people at J&J have worked far harder on multidrug-resistant TB than he has, and infectious-disease researchers could probably earn more on baldness cures or cancer research, so he doesn't want to be mad at the whole company: writing it off is wrong. | The Good News Video 00:01:53 |
| 2023-09-15 | restate | Hank says the people at Danaher and Cepheid, despite their pricing targets, can look hard at the spreadsheets, ask what is right, and get MDR-TB cartridges to about $5. | The Worst Disease in Human History 00:04:58 |
| 2023-12-01 | restate | Hank's goal, though he doesn't know if they'll ever reach it, is to beat Newman's Own, as companies compete for market share and profit. | It's OK if you think less of me after this! 00:04:55 |
| 2024-08-09 | restate | Hank says Good Store makes it easy to do what customers want because its incentive is a good long-term relationship, not locking people in for one extra month. | Why isn't This Illegal? 00:04:47 |
| 2024-10-25 | restate | Hank says he thinks it is great that Cepheid makes a lot of money from the tests. | I Don't Want them to Get Away With It… 00:03:00 |
| 2024-11-03 | restate | Rather than just a great product, Hank wants a different model: whether an e-commerce company can give all its profit away fascinates him, and he can't not do it. | Hank's very messy post-cancer year of mistakes, meaning… 00:09:21 |
| 2025-06-06 | restate | Hank says the capitalist impulse orients toward problems most easily turned into money, overweighting the problems the most powerful and wealthy want solved. | The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech 00:15:33 |
| 2025-08-08 | restate | Hank says what differentiates Good Store in the market is that it donates its profit to charity. | I'm Glad I Ignored That Billionaire 00:00:00 |
| 2025-10-10 | restate | Hank argues that following only the profit motive yields systems that rob people of community, because people hanging out at a potluck aren't scrolling on phones or watching cable news. | Maybe This is My Problem 00:04:46 |
| 2025-12-12 | restate | Hank wants to move people already listening to white-noise videos or sleepy-time podcasts to a new place, capturing part of YouTube's white-noise market for making the world better. | The Economics of a YouTube White Noise Video 00:02:55 |
| 2026-02-04 | restate | Hank is proudest that Complexly always sought to add far more value than it captures: rather than a subscription platform or sale to an ed tech company, it stayed open to every learner. | We Just Sold Our Company for $0 00:05:36 |
| 2026-02-13 | restate | Hank says an organization focused on doing good in the world does not have to be a nonprofit; it can be a business. | Why Isn't Everybody a Nonprofit?! 00:01:56 |
| 2026-05-22 | restate | Hank says he has seen many such sales go wrong and knows how money's pressures pull content and products until a business serves itself more than its mission. | Why I Made Crash Course a Non-Profit 00:02:38 |
Background
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-09-03 | background | John defends capitalism: innovation and competition grow the overall economic pizza, so free markets "create free pizza". (playful) | Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform 00:00:29 |
| 2025-11-11 | background | John explains that Good Store finds the world's best stuff, sells it rather than giving it away, and donates 100% of its profit to charity. (playful) | John's Annual Psychophysical Decline 00:03:04 |
| 2026-04-14 | background | John thanks Hank for his 'stupid idea' of a business that donates 100% of its profit to charity: a great stupid idea. (playful) | Babies. Babies. Babies. 00:04:52 |