Amanpour thought that old Nemtsov friend will engage in anti-Putin rant but she gets owned

Sorry for being condescending.

A cooperative, a group of individuals band together and pool their resources together to provide for their common wealth, welfare, safety, etc. NOT just to make more money.

Many businesses are not there just to make money. Many are a way for like-minded individuals to be productive together for a long time, and the profits allow them to keep going.

Also, about the making money thing. A country's economy is its main indicator of overall strength. Most companies and individuals are only happy in a country if they can prosper in it. As soon as money troubles start (company losses, individual salaries not paid on time, etc.), people don't like the country so much anymore.

So yeah, when you get down to it, it is about making money.

I'm actually not saying that a country is a business ONLY. What I'm saying is that both a country and a business are just forms of the same thing.

A flag is a logo. An anthem is a corporate jingle. A national idea is a corporate mission statement. Both countries and businesses have competitors, products they produce and sell, management structures, etc. With larger business owning more land can be important (just like for a country). People can leave from one to the other, but in both cases it's easy to leave one and not so easy to find another (for both you have to produce sufficient credentials etc). Countries and businesses have to take care of entertainment -- the free cookies and coffee and corporate retreats at your office are entertainment -- same as having TV channels. Some countries have more TV channels, some have fewer (and some offices don't have free cookies and coffee). Companies often hire security services, some can afford in-house security. Same as countries. Companies, like countries, have codes of conduct (= laws).

Oh, and here's the kicker. Go to work tomorrow and send an email to everyone explaining why the top boss is a dickhead. Then see how fact you get fired.

But doing the same about the president of the company one level above (= country)... well, we should have the right to do that, right?

I'm not so sure.

I know this is a hard idea to accept, but if you were an alien and didn't know about either countries

/r/russia Thread Link - youtube.com