3 ms·
"If we don't, someone else will" is not an ethical get-out-of-jail-free card. Literally anything will happen in a capitalist market, if someone is willing to pa
by Analemma_ 8y ago
"If we don't, someone else will" is not an ethical get-out-of-jail-free card. Literally anything will happen in a capitalist market, if someone is willing to pay for it. Does that mean everything that someone will pay for is ethical and you shouldn't bother trying to abstain from it?
If you want to be pragmatic about it, the fewer people who are willing to do X, theoretically the higher the price goes, possibly to the point where no one wants to pay to do X anymore. So refusing to do X is not just an empty gesture.
- asdsa5325 8y ago> "If we don't, someone else will" is not an ethical get-out-of-jail-free card. True, but at the same time, "let's not do this" also isn't an ethical get-out-of-jail-free card. Google engineers can act all high and mighty morally, but guess what: it doesn't matter at all either way.
- jonathanyc 8y agoWhat Google engineers are doing in this situation is strictly better both in the utilitarian and in the Kantian sense. Saying “it doesn’t matter at all either way” is a non-argument.
- menacingly 8y agoI took GP as a genuine question posed without taking a stand on the issue morally.
- caycep 8y agoReminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movies..."Still Life" "Not my kind of money..."