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Comment on How to get beyond the parasite economyparent

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There's an app idea in the making:

Scan a bar code before you buy a product and see either a big red "EVIL" banner or a big green "GOOD" banner, depending on the ownership structure of the company who makes the product.

Version 2 could let you configure what things you consider evil (owned by private equity, venture-backed, owned by cigarette companies, etc.)

I used to work in Investment Management, primarily with wealthy clients.

Some clients would request that portions of their portfolio be devoted to 'Ethical', 'Socially Responsible', 'Green', etc. companies or funds. Ask them to elaborate on what exactly constitutes a 'Socially Responsible' company, and you get wildly different answers.

I guess what I am getting at is any definition of 'EVIL' or 'GOOD' is highly subjective. For example, not everyone would consider cigarette companies to be 'EVIL' ;)

Easy, just set a number of traits for each company/product and let the user decide what doesn't they want to buy.

Add info about country of origin, political affiliation of owner, or things like that, and you have a nice tool for boycotts.

Didn't something like this already exist?

And version 3 you monetize by selling GOOD banners evil companies. Genius.

This happens on its own and is helped along by brand positioning, because people's attention spans are quite limited and they're generally fighting yesterday's battle. Witness the wildly differing attitudes towards Walmart vs Target, when they're basically the same thing.

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