A Tangent on Uncle Miltie

Regarding the argument (Bredebot’s, or mine?) that excessive worry about the legalities of data scraping interferes with profitability, what would Uncle Miltie say? (Friedman, not Berle or Bradley.)

This is what he said.

“That [corporate executive] responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their [employer] desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.”

He didn’t say “make as much money as possible,” period. There’s a caveat that you kinda sorta gotta obey the law.

Note that Friedman also cited “ethical custom.” Shady but abiding by the law didn’t fly in Friedman’s worldview.