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The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

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Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#21

Post by malfist »

engineer_22 wrote: post #12
nickflw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true. I wish alcohol, tobacco, gun and insurance companies and their employees faced the same stigma.

I live in New York. A very old very famous manufacturer of firearms, Remington Arms, which employed hundreds of people and was the economic engine of its community was forced by the State of New York to shut down. That community cannot replace what was lost when the factory closed. Poverty, crime, drugs have moved in to the void. You may be right that guns are are corrosive to a democratic society, that's an open deb…

Your statement is not grounded in the truth. Remnington did not shut down because of government interference. They employed a grand total of 100 people in NY. Hardly the "economic engine of its community"

They shutdown because they sold 7.5 million guns that could fire without someone pulling the trigger and 60 minutes exposed it.

And you should know that their building is being converted into a 250,000 sqft AI data center. So it's not like employment is just lost in the area.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#22

Post by RHSeeger »

antonymoose wrote: post #7
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #5

You may have a cool product in the field of sports betting, casinos, or lotteries. But almost all social networks and search engines won’t let you advertise without a license from the required jurisdiction. Good . You should face social stigma for creating products that literally ruin people's lives.

Not to mention the entitlement of startups to just flaunt laws and regulations. Still kills me to this day Uber and AirBNB running illegal billion dollar operations. I suppose one can at least say Uber mitigates drunk driving tendencies. As far as AirBNB goes, it can rot straight in hell. My hometown is now 20% AirBNB, they ran illegally for many years, and this completely prices out normal folks trying to live near…

I don't have a problem with them actively choosing to break laws to protest the laws themselves; to try to get them changed. Civil disobedience is a long standing practice. However, part of doing that is facing the consequences of breaking those laws; being arrested, etc. Just because _you_ think the law isn't just doesn't mean it's not a law - it just means you think it should be changed.

And the companies in question break the law and then whine and complain like they shouldn't need to face the consequences; like the law shouldn't apply to them because they don't think it's fair.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#23

Post by embedding-shape »

3form wrote: post #11
A_Duck wrote: post #3

What's the author trying to say here? It's good that the law isn't the only line between good and evil. A bit of stigma is a bottom-up way for people to shape society. If nobody invites you to dinner parties because you run a startup that combines payday-lending and day-trading, that's a good thing. It's free alpha for companies doing more worthwhile things.

I don't like mixing of everything 18+ in the article. I think the author wants to put all the stigma in one basket, and I don't it's as simple. For example, porn meets some actual human needs and has a certain function - but gambling? Simple abuse at scale. I think like you argue, society shaping business is good. And some people should really reevaluate what they're going for if that's too much for them.

> For example, porn meets some actual human needs and has a certain function - but gambling? Simple abuse at scale.

Now I'm as as free-minded as people typically gets, but both of those are just "entertainment" for me, one is not more "essential" than the other, what exact "human need" does pornography meet that somehow gambling doesn't also meet, since we're not talking about "fun" or "entertainment" here but something else it sounds like.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#24

Post by projektfu »

raincole wrote: post #20
A_Duck wrote: post #3

What's the author trying to say here? It's good that the law isn't the only line between good and evil. A bit of stigma is a bottom-up way for people to shape society. If nobody invites you to dinner parties because you run a startup that combines payday-lending and day-trading, that's a good thing. It's free alpha for companies doing more worthwhile things.

The article is about payment providers. Do you think payment providers should act like moral police that decide how the customers can spend their money? If so, do you think Google/Apple/Microsoft should have a say in which apps the users can install? Should ISPs decide which sites the users can access?

The article does talk about church and social gatherings, and uncomfortable SOs?

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#26

Post by embedding-shape »

malfist wrote: post #16
jmkd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of other products that literally ruin people's lives: alcohol, tobacco, sugar, pharmaceuticals, credit cards, firearms, timeshares, junk food. Society has them all on very different parts of a stigma spectrum. Honest question: why is this line so clear for you?

Honest question, why isn't the line so clear for you? We're talking about a product built to make people's lives worse while extracting wealth from them that get them addicted as well.

> We're talking about a product built to make people's lives worse while extracting wealth from them that get them addicted as well.

That's most of the products being sold today, you think the most for-profit companies sell things and services in order to improve the world? They're selling stuff because they want to make money, if they can make someone addicted + extract wealth from them, then in their world that's a no-brainer.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#27

Post by ohyoutravel »

cj wrote: post #14
A_Duck wrote: post #3

What's the author trying to say here? It's good that the law isn't the only line between good and evil. A bit of stigma is a bottom-up way for people to shape society. If nobody invites you to dinner parties because you run a startup that combines payday-lending and day-trading, that's a good thing. It's free alpha for companies doing more worthwhile things.

> line between good and evil Talking about good and evil in tech is a slippery slope. What's worse, working at Meta building products causing addiction in kids, or building an adult content site? I think there's an argument that Meta is morally worse, yet there's no stigma associated with having Meta on your resume. I find that interesting.

Meta isn’t as blatant about it, but they’re arguably much worse than anything else listed here. I think because it has legitimate uses up front, like keeping up with your friends or selling something on the marketplace, and the true evil is just below that veneer. Gambling and payday lending is right out front.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#28

Post by jfrbfbreudh »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #4

> A regular provider charges a regular commission but will not work with you, while another will want a commission 10 times higher and will agree, but may stop working with you at any time. I know I will get downvoted for this because it is an unpopular opinion, but this exactly the reason why we need bitcoin as a means of payments without any middlemen involved.

Yes, because bitcoin transaction costs never surge in price.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#29

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

malfist wrote: post #21
engineer_22 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in New York. A very old very famous manufacturer of firearms, Remington Arms, which employed hundreds of people and was the economic engine of its community was forced by the State of New York to shut down. That community cannot replace what was lost when the factory closed. Poverty, crime, drugs have moved in to the void. You may be right that guns are are corrosive to a democratic society, that's an open deb…

Your statement is not grounded in the truth. Remnington did not shut down because of government interference. They employed a grand total of 100 people in NY. Hardly the "economic engine of its community" They shutdown because they sold 7.5 million guns that could fire without someone pulling the trigger and 60 minutes exposed it. And you should know that their building is being converted into a 250,000 sqft AI data…

> their building is being converted into a 250,000 sqft AI data center

Haven't the locals suffered enough already?

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#30

Post by darkwater »

malfist wrote: post #16
jmkd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of other products that literally ruin people's lives: alcohol, tobacco, sugar, pharmaceuticals, credit cards, firearms, timeshares, junk food. Society has them all on very different parts of a stigma spectrum. Honest question: why is this line so clear for you?

Honest question, why isn't the line so clear for you? We're talking about a product built to make people's lives worse while extracting wealth from them that get them addicted as well.

Half of the list by GP shares these same characteristics, unfortunately. The only one that is slowly - but not even steadily - going towards the same stigma is tobacco.
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