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Finding the right fine for actions like this is hard. On one hand, we (as a society) want it to hurt, to cause the company real pain. On the other hand, we don
by beat 8y ago
Finding the right fine for actions like this is hard.
On one hand, we (as a society) want it to hurt, to cause the company real pain. On the other hand, we don't want to actually destroy the company. This leads to a "cost of doing business" problem, where evil practices become a preferred path for management, if evil is sufficiently profitable.
The underlying problem is that corporations are NOT people, whatever the law says, and the corporation itself has no inherent ethics or morality. The fire doesn't choose to burn the forest, it just does.
edit: I suppose the problem in part is society. We see a beauty and symmetry in capitalism, so we assume beautiful == good, a philosophical failing going all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Just because it's beautiful and useful doesn't mean it's "good" in a moral sense.
- kodz4 8y agoThe size of the forest fire matters. Facebook is probably the first company in history that can cause planet wide forest fires at scale and speed never possible before. That said I think they finally get that, after a long period of total denial. Not because of the fines and regulatory action which have come too late, but just from all the unintended unignorable consequences that have pilled up.
- beat 8y agoYeah. The loss of long-term customers over privacy issues, addiction issues, and general creepiness is probably a greater concern to them than a fine. I quit using Facebook because I realized it's actively unhealthy for me, and I've been "healing" since. They don't want the dribble of middle class tech nerds leaving the platform to become a flood.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jammygit 8y ago"We don't want to actually destroy the company" It would be bad for investors, but... would it be that bad overall? I guess a replacement could theoretically be worse but they would have to commit to that ideal and not be dissuaded by the fate of their predecessors
- beat 8y agoIt's a fair question, something we should be asking ourselves as a society. But as I suggested earlier, we're still stuck with a society where a lot of people, perhaps even a majority, find corporate capitalism to be morally righteous, not merely elegant and effective. Corporate life is more sacred than human life in our world, sadly.