The Pleasures of Being Bad

This is one of the fundamental pleasures of being human - being able to cheat, and get away with it.

And this is one of the fundamental problems of any society - how to encourage economic initiative without encouraging dishonesty at the same time.

American society was a case in point. It was strange mixture of idealism and dishonesty - that persisted into the Computer era. There was so much money being made there - it was very tempting to be dishonest in all kinds of innovative ways.

As was shown in the Financial Crisis of 2008. A crisis that still exists, because Americans have not developed the Political Will to deal with the issues involved. But want to keep alive the possibility - that they too - can cheat and get rich.

I noticed this, back in the Eighties, in high-tech California - the Coastal strip from Ventura County, southward through LA Country, Orange County, and into San Diego. The amount of high-tech junk being created there was phenomenal.

Why? Because they could get away with it - and because they did not know how to do it right.

Eventually, the action shifted northward - into Silicon Valley. And then to Seattle. They knew how to make good computers and good software. The Laptop and the Cloud came into being.

They discovered the pleasures of being good - and being profitable also. A tricky balance, that is still being negotiated.