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Comment by mlsu | Hacker News Reader

"Goodwill" is fungible only in one direction. Goodwill turns into money but money never ever turn into goodwill.

(Can you think of an counterexample? A small, beloved indie business that was bought out by a megacorp and had consumers love it more because it had more money?)

So, it's like entropy. The latch only moves in one direction. Given a consumer beloved business, the only possible thing that can happen is that its goodwill is turned, quickly or slowly, into money. This is actually ok. Every beautiful living thing will eventually die. It's simply a fact of life. Cherish the good things while you can, because entropy will always win.

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I think goodwill is more like fuel:

Slow to produce, quick to consume.

That bias tends to mean that large corporations consume more than they produce over time, as they’re biased towards short term financial results — but you absolutely can grow goodwill with money plus time.

Look at esports, where years of financing community contests have earned good will from players.

Or the numerous charities that corporations like McDonalds run. Ronald McDonald house can and does earn them a lot of good will — which they turn around and spend on short term results.

My point is this is less about entropy than the short-term managerial culture we follow.

The relationship may not be direct, but I don’t think it is nonexsistent.

Bandcamp didn’t build goodwill without spending money. In fact, it gained goodwill precisely because it spent its money in ways consistent with building goodwill.

Actually, in accounting Money turns into Goodwill when a company is acquired, representing the premium that is paid above a company's assets. I accounting, this value is not amortised, unless something exceptional happens that affects that value (decided by the company's management).

So in the real world, (real) goodwill turns into more money. But in accounting, money turns into goodwill!

"In accounting, goodwill is an intangible asset recognized when a firm is purchased as a going concern. It reflects the premium that the buyer pays in addition to the net value of its other assets. Goodwill is often understood to represent the firm's intrinsic ability to acquire and retain customer business, where that ability is not otherwise attributable to brand name recognition, contractual arrangements or other specific factors" (Wikipedia)

Our current economic system is not some immutable law of nature, we can change it if it's harmful to our society

That is true to the extent that "we" refers to the wealthy and powerful.

"Fungible in one direction" is a roundabout way of saying "non-fungible".

It is more than that. It seems like the capitalists are shifting to the mindset that goodwill provides no actual benefit for a business so might as well cash in immediately. Now there is a belief that whenever a customer or business partner leaves an interaction with you with any surplus value, that is an indication that you left money on the table. Happy employees are paid too much. Happy suppliers aren't being squeezed hard enough on pricing. Happy customers mean you missed an opportunity to extract more revenue. People should only barely tolerate doing business with you. That is the new corporate mindset.

This seems extremely spot-on. It feels like there's no space for actual growth, so all that's left is the utterly short-term-focused, zero-sum approach that you describe, where goodwill -- a very useful asset for growth -- is burned for its immediate value. The goose can't lay golden eggs anymore, so let's slaughter it and serve it for dinner.

Money turns into goodwill all the time… just not usually in terms of company buyouts.

We can do that and also be mad at the people and systems doing the killing. Everyone dies in the end, but I'm still mad about murder, etc.

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