Being good

John Gruber's Daring Fireball blog links to Paul Graham advising startup companies to "Be good."

Gruber's summary of Graham resonates:

His argument, more or less, if that if you use “do what’s best for the users” as your rule of thumb for any decision, you’re more likely to grow into a successful business. He even makes the case that was true for Microsoft during their years of phenomenal growth.

How I wish credit card companies would think the same way with regard to their debtors. I think that sums up the difference between me and other critics of the credit card companies. I want people to have access to credit, and I want creditors to apply Paul Graham's advice to their own industry and be successful. The business of lending isn't evil; it's the way the Bank of Americas of the world go about it. I just hate when creditors resort to coercion and fraud to make a few extra bucks.

The kind of behavior I'm talking about is what Bob Sullivan calls "Gotcha Capitalism." Except it's not really capitalism. Translate "users" in the quote above to "customers" and you've got a near-perfect description of real capitalism (the evils committed by credit card companies aren't capitalism, despite what journalists or social studies teachers say).