If corporations *really didn’t care* about whether they’re poisoning their customers or not, Tide wouldn’t be running a commercial on social media in which Rob Gronkowski tells people not to eat Tide pods. Observations:
1. Brand names and reputations matter.
2. The present value of revenue from long-lived and healthy customers is probably a lot higher than the present value of revenue from poisoned and dead customers.
3. Liability matters. I don’t know that this should apply to teenagers and there’s a lot of responsibility that rests with parents, but I do wish chemical companies didn’t make their poisons so brightly and attractively colored.
4. Finish Powerball is better anyway. The flavors are more subtle, the texture more palatable.
5. The Tide pod challenge fad makes me even more skeptical of voting as a means of making large-scale social choices.
5a. But maybe people have virtue budgets the way they have willpower budgets. They exhaust their virtue on wise political choice and understanding of justice. Hence, there’s nothing left in the virtue and wisdom tank when the Tide pod challenge comes along.
