[skinkestek]

Some of us think that if app developers who deliver good apps earn money from it, it will incentivize them to continue creating good apps.

But sometimes I feel myself slipping closer and closer to your much more cynical ideas.

In particular I remember donating what for me was a good chunk of money to Caddy right before they started "experimenting with business models" or whatever he called it. Same goes for happily paying WhatsApp, walking around like a living talking billboard for it only to have them sell out to Facebook shortly after.

Just two examples from the top of my mind.

[pixl97]

"Greed is good" --Says the monkey with his hand trapped in a jar.

History has taught us that an enforced rule of law is the only way to prevent scammers from being the dominate players (by number, not size) in a market.

[psd1]

Negative. It ceases to be adaptive to be a cheater when cheaters exceed a certain percentage of the population. The advantage comes from information asymmetry.

Law makes cheating less adaptive. But even without law, cheats would not exceed some small minority.