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by FeepingCreature 3223 days ago
You can't wish away a tragedy of the commons. All you're doing is rewarding bad behavior.
1 comments

As to your first point I don't disagree, but are you saying taking steps to organize boycotts is trying to wish away something?

I was thinking organizing boycotts would have been an affirmative step towards turning wishes into action. Therefore, could you explain how organizing boycotts to address (at least) bad corporate actors behavior would be rewarding bad behavior? Is that a any press is good press argument or am I missing something else?

Boycotts only work for goods with fixed demand. The stock market is designed to be maximally responsive. You can't boycott a stock for moral reasons; you're effectively just donating money to people with no moral qualms.

You have to realize that the stock market is an engine for predicting profit. If you're boycotting something for reasons that are not represented in profit, then all you're doing is turning yourself into the sort of damage that the stock market is best at routing around. The only way to punish companies is to impact their bottom line, and boycotting their stock does not have that effect unless you control enough of the market that the rest can't pick up the slack, and if you don't have that influence then the effect will be negligible.

If, as they say, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, then certainly the market can stay rational longer than you can stay obstinate.