Dana Fried
There are three arguments around regulation that I think we need to dispense with entirely. When a new rule or regulation is proposed, industry tends to push back with one of:
1. It will stifle innovation
2. It will destroy our business model
3. It will cost jobs
These are all nonsense and should be challenged as such.
Dana Fried
The jobs argument is the hardest one, but I have two responses to that:
1. Show me you actually care about jobs. Because I promise you that most companies complaining about jobs have have had record profits and have given that money back to investors while *cutting* jobs.
2. Justify those jobs. Shutting down a Mafia organization puts a bunch of hitmen out of work. Doesn't mean those jobs are worth more than the harm they cause. I'm sure your creepy tech company's employees can find new gigs.
Dana Fried
We need to kill the default assumption that business = good, profits = good, and that whatever the market will bear = good.
The market is inherently amoral, corporations are inherently amoral, and the only way to ensure that the invisible hand doesn't crush us to a pulp is to set up a robust regime of incentives and penalties to guide it in the right direction.
Truly innovative companies will take risks and find ways to succeed in any regulatory environment.
Paul Cantrell
@tess
“Amoral” is such a useful word.
Dana Fried
Most of the "innovation" coming out of big companies lately - whether it's banking, tech, or something else - has been finding news ways to extract money from customers. Regulation that ensures products and services are safe and non-exploitative stifles this kind of "innovation", sure, but there's no reason we should be supporting new ideas whose goals are to harm people.
The only kind of innovation we want is innovation that *helps* people and creates new better products.
Dana Fried
Second, if your business model would be destroyed by common-sense regulation, *you should not be in business*.
There's bad regulation that can destroy a business model. Poorly-conceived CAFE rules are why Ford doesn't make actual cars anymore, only trucks.
But the kinds of things companies complain about - safety, minimum wage, benefits, etc. - are the kinds of things where you have to say "Look, if you can't pay your employees a living wage, you don't deserve to have a business. Sorry."
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