

Ask HN: Why is it easier to make money by being evil? - diminium

So, why is it easier for a company to be evil?<p>Example 1: Why is it easier for a company to make money by tracking their customers and selling their data to the highest bidder then it is to make money ANY other way?<p>Example 2: Why is it easier to sell software which tracks employees in a Orwellian style central management control system then it is to sell software which empowers employees to do what they think is best?<p>It seems like it is much easier to make money by doing evil things then it is by doing good.  Why is this?
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glimcat
For any problem with optimal solution k, a superset of that problem formed by
relaxing the rule set will have an optimal solution at least as efficient as
k.

It comes up in AI a few times.

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moocow01
Capitalism and currency as a concept have no understanding of ethics, morals
or good vs. bad built into them.

The responsibility of enforcing and encouraging ethical behavior is on the
shoulders of the government and broader society. For example, if we take that
selling people's personal information is "evil" as a given, it would not be a
profitable practice if literally everyone did not accept it as a fair practice
or the government could theoretically censor it completely. There would be no
money to be made because potential buyers would distance themselves from it.

To take it to the extreme, for example, if our culture valued something as
blatantly evil and extreme as cannibalism and the government had no laws
against such actions, there would unfortunately be money to be made on selling
human tritip as gruesome as that is.

The point is that the trend you notice of companies profiting from "evil"
actions (I agree with this) is more a reflection of the current status of
society, our value system, and the government than it is of capitalism or
business. If we all were purely "good", the nature of what is profitable would
be quite different.

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UnoriginalGuy
I would argue that being "evil" is less important than being completely
single-minded.

Why, for example, does Google track its customers? To show them more relevant
search results and ads.

From Google's perspective why is that a "good" thing? Because more relevant
content means the customer is more engaged.

Why is engagement important? An engaged customer is going to spend longer on
your site/services than an unengaged one.

So what can we take away from this? Google is completely single-minded about
keeping customers using its products and customer engagement is a cornerstone
in that strategy which in turn leads to things which one might consider
"evil."

Good and evil are all a matter of perspective. The problem with morals is that
they get in the way of being single-minded. If you WANT your business to
succeed but are too moral to fire that under-performing employee then you
might at best set your business back or at worst fail entirely.

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gee_totes
Example 1: I'm assuming you mean users (instead of customers, since normally
your customers are buying something from you and that's how you make money).
If your users aren't buying things from you directly, appeals for donations
and affiliate programs aren't as steady a stream of income as selling tracking
data.

Example 2: I think this speaks to corporate management philosophy more than
anything. If management philosophy of large corporations shifts towards
empowering their employees and away from quantifying employee's productivity
contributions, then it will be easier to sell software which empowers
employees to do what they think is best.

inb4 capitalism

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mapster
It has to do with keeping customers, learning about them, and selling
goods/services to them over and over.

The other side of the coin is the aim to maximize profitability (collect and
sell data). Take the humanity out of the equation and look at the business
plan thru the lens of a logical, emotionless strategy. I am not saying that is
good or bad, but it certainly is logical, no denying that.

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gyardley
Wait, what? It's way easier to make money by selling a product or service than
it is by 'tracking customers and selling data.'

An individual's data is worth next-to-nothing. You have to accumulate _huge_
audiences and keep the costs of whatever you're giving away ridiculously low
to make that sort of business worthwhile - and both of those are really really
hard.

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girasquid
Define 'evil', and then define 'easier'.

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brudgers
It is easiest to make money by being amoral.

This is distinctly a different approach from being immoral.

 _Caveat Emptor_ is neither evil nor consistent with the golden rule.

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tgrass
Asymmetrical Information.

