People or Profit

[Mister Agenda]

There are so many possible scenarios, I have trouble imagining that I would get myself into a position where my choices were that black-and-white. Offered a million dollars to assassinate a serial pedo-rapist maybe? No, the kids spared rape would justify it, the money would just be compensation for the risk of carrying it out. If offered a million dollars to assassinate a perfectly nice person, wouldn't do it. A billion dollars...I could use it to save the lives of a million perfectly nice people in developing countries, give the victim's heirs a million dollars each, and still retire a multi-millionaire. That would be tempting, though I suppose I would have to take up an empty life of whoring and excessive drinking to keep my mind off my guilt...I could certainly afford it, though!

An extra $10 a month in my pocket for putting someone out of work: never! An extra $10,000 a month? They were obviously way too overpaid if I can get that kind of money by firing them.

What I'm saying is, without the brass tacks, the question can't really be answered. How much profit at what human cost?

[reverendjeremiah]

(29th November 2011 23:30)Mister Agenda Wrote:  There are so many possible scenarios, I have trouble imagining that I would get myself into a position where my choices were that black-and-white. Offered a million dollars to assassinate a serial pedo-rapist maybe? No, the kids spared rape would justify it, the money would just be compensation for the risk of carrying it out. If offered a million dollars to assassinate a perfectly nice person, wouldn't do it. A billion dollars...I could use it to save the lives of a million perfectly nice people in developing countries, give the victim's heirs a million dollars each, and still retire a multi-millionaire. That would be tempting, though I suppose I would have to take up an empty life of whoring and excessive drinking to keep my mind off my guilt...I could certainly afford it, though!

An extra $10 a month in my pocket for putting someone out of work: never! An extra $10,000 a month? They were obviously way too overpaid if I can get that kind of money by firing them.

What I'm saying is, without the brass tacks, the question can't really be answered. How much profit at what human cost?

In other words, you vote Profit.

[Tiberius]

I think you'll find he abstained, actually.

[reverendjeremiah]

Hmm.. aquick overview and I can see...perhaps it would be more about people for him

Then again, i suggested profit for him based on this one

Quote:An extra $10 a month in my pocket for putting someone out of work: never! An extra $10,000 a month? They were obviously way too overpaid if I can get that kind of money by firing them.

but..its merely my opinion.

[Mister Agenda]

It's more like profits are often compatible with people: If I open a hotdog stand and I make a profit on what people are willing to give me for my hotdogs in excess of what it costs me to provide them, it's a win-win: They got hot dogs they wanted more than the money they gave me and I got money I wanted more than the hot dogs I had.

There's nothing inherent in profit that makes it detrimental to people. When profit is an incentive to harm people, the problem is with the way the incentives are set up. Profit can get psychopaths to do something that benefits humanity, or saints to commit crimes. When profit is leading people to do something wrong, I think rather than condemn profit as a motivator, you address the skewed incentives that reward someone for hurting people.

And yeah, I abstained. If I wanted to find a better way to protect women and children in Mali from malaria mosquitoes using netting, I would hire a company to find out what works, and pay them based on the effectiveness of the solution they came up with. Or I could use the profit from my hotdog stand to pay for cataract surgery in developing countries. I can see too many ways to use profit to help people to see it as either profit or people. I see someone who is in conflict about that as lacking the imagination to find a way to have both.

[padraic]

IF you are in business, the customer IS your business,and you upset him at your peril---unless you are say Microsoft, Fox,an HMO or some other huge corporation. Then the customer can go fuck himself.

[Rhythm]

(29th November 2011 23:30)Mister Agenda Wrote:  That would be tempting, though I suppose I would have to take up an empty life of whoring and excessive drinking to keep my mind off my guilt...I could certainly afford it, though!

I've been wondering exactly how I ended up at this point in my life. I think you may have provided me with the answer.