Being compared to the tobacco giants is one of the business world’s more toxic insults, but it is not the only unflattering analogy circulating. A lower blow is the suggestion that Facebook may become like Yahoo, the once high-flying internet firm that plunged.
The article is by The Economists, but I tend think the societal costs outweigh the financial to shareholders and employees.
If you look at TE's content and editorial agenda, they take a very much larger view of their remit and the role of economics in society than just finance.
There is more to analogy with big tobacco. Facebook is used exactly ina way that cigarretes are used. People at work or during commute look at Facebook instead of taking a cigarette break. And then they go back after their business.
As more and more democracies realize that Facebook and the likes are toxic for them [1] (democracy is people taking informed decisions not 'engaged' decisions) Facebook will get regulated just as smoking. Which means banned.
And people will move on to healthier alternatives. And Zuck will probably end in jail or under heavy litigation for beeing complicit in so many crimes. This is just beggining now.
[1] - funny that Russia and China realized what Facebook really is right away years ago and banned it or used to their advantage. But to 'free' countries it is always profit above social consequences.
As Lenin remarked - 'Capitalists themselves will sell to us ropes that we will hang them on'
This victim mentality (we are victims of the immune rich) is not helpful to society, especially since it isn't true. Bernie Madoff and the Enron executives absolutely were prosecuted. But you have to actually break the law to go to jail in the US. Being immoral and unethical, being sociopatic and manipulative isn't illegal. Those characteristics aren't limited to rich people, either, they are just the most visible people.
The article is by The Economists, but I tend think the societal costs outweigh the financial to shareholders and employees.