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It's a tough one. To what extent do we need to go to protect people from their own stupidity? I remember doing something similar about 15 years ago. A pizza pl

It's a tough one. To what extent do we need to go to protect people from their own stupidity? I remember doing something similar about 15 years ago. A pizza place accepted PayPal including a 'pay after delivery' option. This actually resulted in the payment being taken about 7 days after the order was placed and it was a handy way to get some food when I was broke right before pay day (they didn't check your balance before placing the order). ] Is it a bad idea to order takeout on credit - yeah usually it is. But if people want to do it why should we stop them? There are certainly legitimate use cases (e.g. placing a very large order for a group/party and having time to collect from everyone instead of having to front the cash yourself).

awongh 2y ago
Isn't there at least a little bit of social responsibility where the chances that the real utility is very small? If the feature was really about parties/large orders, how about enabling it for orders over $100? I don't think this is a real scenario. Otherwise it's just predatory and an anti-consumer dark pattern. See the current arguments about sports betting, there's some clear evidence that they aren't an entertainment product and there are clear predatory and anti-social product patterns at work. I don't believe in protecting people from their own stupidity but I also think we should call out blatant net-negative things lke this.
maxerickson 2y ago
If we are going to extend liability protections to investors, it goes hand in hand that we also tell them they can't run liability free scams, and punish them when they try.
hermannj314 2y ago
As a principle, we don't protect people from their stupidity unless we can profit more from being a nanny. Anyone can walk into a liquor store and buy enough alcohol to kill themselves or waste all their money at the casino. Who cares about people borrowing money for lunch? This country absolutely does not care at all for the poor (unless we've built an institution of exploitation disguised as benevolence)
aziaziazi 2y ago
> do we need to go to protect people from their own stupidity Speed limits, casino rules, food ingredients legislations, weapon and gun legislation… depending on where you live the cursor is between freedom and stupidity protection. I can easily and happily find alternatives for the exemples you provide. Here in EU the credit (card) culture is way less loanistic: what we call “credit card” are often delayed debit cards and the real credit cards are used by the richest percentiles.

awongh 2y ago

Isn't there at least a little bit of social responsibility where the chances that the real utility is very small? If the feature was really about parties/large orders, how about enabling it for orders over $100? I don't think this is a real scenario. Otherwise it's just predatory and an anti-consumer dark pattern. See the current arguments about sports betting, there's some clear evidence that they aren't an entertainment product and there are clear predatory and anti-social product patterns at work. I don't believe in protecting people from their own stupidity but I also think we should call out blatant net-negative things lke this.

maxerickson 2y ago

If we are going to extend liability protections to investors, it goes hand in hand that we also tell them they can't run liability free scams, and punish them when they try.

hermannj314 2y ago

As a principle, we don't protect people from their stupidity unless we can profit more from being a nanny. Anyone can walk into a liquor store and buy enough alcohol to kill themselves or waste all their money at the casino. Who cares about people borrowing money for lunch? This country absolutely does not care at all for the poor (unless we've built an institution of exploitation disguised as benevolence)

aziaziazi 2y ago

> do we need to go to protect people from their own stupidity Speed limits, casino rules, food ingredients legislations, weapon and gun legislation… depending on where you live the cursor is between freedom and stupidity protection. I can easily and happily find alternatives for the exemples you provide. Here in EU the credit (card) culture is way less loanistic: what we call “credit card” are often delayed debit cards and the real credit cards are used by the richest percentiles.