3 ms·

>>it's a good that a demographic buys. Oxygen and carbon monoxide are both gases. One of them is poisonous to humans.

devoply 10y ago
Corporations will sell you just enough rope to hang yourself unless the government steps in and tells them not to through regulation. But that's the antithesis of business, neo-liberal economics will argue. Canada still sells asbestos to third world countries for instance.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
  Apparently asbestos mining in Canada has ended. Asbestos opponents and those weary of seeing Canada's mesothelioma rate rise celebrated in 2011 when the country's asbestos industry ground to a standstill. Canada's last two remaining active mines, the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, and the Lac d'amiante du Canada in the nearby town of Thetford Mines, Quebec, shut down because of financial, labor and development issues — the first time in 130 years that the Canadian asbestos production stalled.[1] 1. https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/canada/ https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/canada/
ajmurmann 10y ago
Are you suggesting that pay day loans should be illegal or advertisements for them should? If not why not advertise them to the audience that is apparently interested in it?
- pvg 10y ago
  There's a difference between an interest in yoga pants and an 'interest' in predatory loans or military service for lack of other options.
  - ajmurmann 10y ago
    Yeah I get that it is unfortunate to say the least that people need/want these loans. However, what is the right thing to do about the loans? If they are predatory, maybe they should be illegal. But who am I to tell people what they can and cannot do with their money? That would be rather patronizing. If we assume that people getting these loans are grown adults why shouldn't we allow people offering them to advertise to the people most interested in them? Is it ethically "better" if even wealthy women from the Marina see the ads despite everyone knowing they don't care about pay day loans for purposes other than discussing then on HN? I think it's honestly a really hard ethical question that I don't see a obvious answer to.
    - pvg 10y ago
      If you're an advertising platform, you can choose what sort of products are advertised on it. All of them do. You can, quite reasonably, decline to advertise things that are unethical. For instance, predatory loans. You are choosing not to profit off the misery of others. This is not nearly as complicated as you make it out to be.
      - prostoalex 10y ago
        Will the target demographics universally and unequivocally benefit when online access to such loans is cut off? Other choices might include an even more predatory local check-cashing place and a guy named Vinnie who seems to own a lot of baseball bats for someone that never plays baseball.
        pvg 10y ago
        This doesn't 'cut off access'. Last year Google stopped advertising predatory lenders entirely. Targeting ads for predatory lenders at potentially vulnerable people is even worse. Again, this is a pretty straightforward thing, not a complex logic puzzle that requires careful derivation from fundamental axioms.
dualogy 10y ago
Not to detract or digress, but oxygen is damaging to cellular life as well, just long term. If nothing else gets you beforehand, with age as all mammals "we caramelize (glycation) & we go rancid" (oxidation). When photosynthesizing microorganisms emerged and oxygenated the planet, it likely wiped out 90% of life as it existed pre-oxygen (not multicellular back then --- which could well predominantly be an adaptation to protect weaker "inner" cells against oxygen, anyway --- the other great adaptation was proto-mitochondria getting an actual massive energy boost from burning oxygen rather than being burned by it, and here we are today!)

Corporations will sell you just enough rope to hang yourself unless the government steps in and tells them not to through regulation. But that's the antithesis of business, neo-liberal economics will argue. Canada still sells asbestos to third world countries for instance.

TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
Apparently asbestos mining in Canada has ended. Asbestos opponents and those weary of seeing Canada's mesothelioma rate rise celebrated in 2011 when the country's asbestos industry ground to a standstill. Canada's last two remaining active mines, the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, and the Lac d'amiante du Canada in the nearby town of Thetford Mines, Quebec, shut down because of financial, labor and development issues — the first time in 130 years that the Canadian asbestos production stalled.[1] 1. https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/canada/ https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/canada/

ajmurmann 10y ago

Are you suggesting that pay day loans should be illegal or advertisements for them should? If not why not advertise them to the audience that is apparently interested in it?

pvg 10y ago
There's a difference between an interest in yoga pants and an 'interest' in predatory loans or military service for lack of other options.
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  Yeah I get that it is unfortunate to say the least that people need/want these loans. However, what is the right thing to do about the loans? If they are predatory, maybe they should be illegal. But who am I to tell people what they can and cannot do with their money? That would be rather patronizing. If we assume that people getting these loans are grown adults why shouldn't we allow people offering them to advertise to the people most interested in them? Is it ethically "better" if even wealthy women from the Marina see the ads despite everyone knowing they don't care about pay day loans for purposes other than discussing then on HN? I think it's honestly a really hard ethical question that I don't see a obvious answer to.
  - pvg 10y ago
    If you're an advertising platform, you can choose what sort of products are advertised on it. All of them do. You can, quite reasonably, decline to advertise things that are unethical. For instance, predatory loans. You are choosing not to profit off the misery of others. This is not nearly as complicated as you make it out to be.
    - prostoalex 10y ago
      Will the target demographics universally and unequivocally benefit when online access to such loans is cut off? Other choices might include an even more predatory local check-cashing place and a guy named Vinnie who seems to own a lot of baseball bats for someone that never plays baseball.
      - pvg 10y ago
        This doesn't 'cut off access'. Last year Google stopped advertising predatory lenders entirely. Targeting ads for predatory lenders at potentially vulnerable people is even worse. Again, this is a pretty straightforward thing, not a complex logic puzzle that requires careful derivation from fundamental axioms.

dualogy 10y ago

Not to detract or digress, but oxygen is damaging to cellular life as well, just long term. If nothing else gets you beforehand, with age as all mammals "we caramelize (glycation) & we go rancid" (oxidation). When photosynthesizing microorganisms emerged and oxygenated the planet, it likely wiped out 90% of life as it existed pre-oxygen (not multicellular back then --- which could well predominantly be an adaptation to protect weaker "inner" cells against oxygen, anyway --- the other great adaptation was proto-mitochondria getting an actual massive energy boost from burning oxygen rather than being burned by it, and here we are today!)