[chillacy]

Awfully confusing since stealing in this case (lobbying) is currently legal.

Getting upset at TurboTax for lobbying is like getting upset when a baseball player steals a base.. it’s part of the game. If it isn’t working then change the rules of the game! Trying to shame every baseball player into not stealing bases isn’t gonna work, they want to win.

[kup0]

I find their profit strategies to be abhorrent with their nag screens, bait & switches, dark patterns, purposely confusing "free" wording, no-indexing of the real freefile page, and so forth. I think that is clearly unethical business behavior.

But you're saying one can only get upset at a company if they do something illegal, not if one considers what that company is doing unethical, regardless of legality?

Legal does not equal ethical.

[chillacy]

Why not just enshrine a reflection of our morality into law itself? Large groups of people have shown a pretty bad track record of caring about "ethical behavior".

[jakelazaroff]

Law is not intended to be a reflection of morality. There's a lot of behavior most people would consider immoral (lying, adultery, cutting in line) that we generally don't want laws against. Coordinated social pressure can be a powerful coercive force as well!

[chillacy]

> Law is not intended to be a reflection of morality

By whom? By any reasonable definition the two will never be the same (otherwise why have two words for it), but it does seem like laws ensure justice, and justice is a reflection of how people feel, and that all comes together to form morality.

Coordinated social pressure has its limitations. 50 years ago homosexuality is deeply frowned upon in the US, now it's accepted in a fair number of places, shouldn't the law change to reflect the new morality of the times?

And now likewise if we think that taxes are too low for the mega wealthy, or companies are bribing the living hell out of congress... shouldn't we make laws against that? I don't see stern looks changing these problems.