The Problem with Solely Focusing on Money

I think that where most old-school developers like me are making a mistake is that we presume that companies ACTUALLY WANT to build good, well-engineered, ethical software that is enjoyable and easy for the user to use, and doesn’t add frustration to their daily lives.

Companies don’t care about any of that!

Companies just want to make profit. Any humanly (or inhumanly) way possible.

They don’t particular care about the notion of ‘quality’ or ‘user satisfaction’ as objectives in themselves - in fact, both those concepts usually directly oppose their main goal which is ’to make as much money as possible’.

20 years ago these ‘socially beneficial’ ideals were more aligned with the goal of ‘make as much money as possible’ - or at least, there was room in the profit margins for doing these beneficial things. Now they mostly act against it.

What is the solution? Probably - government regulation.