You say as if it was all in GP's head, but being "a good human" and running a "good business" are concepts that are commonly understood, if a little fuzzy in the details. They're also the underpinning of society - the more good actors playing fair you have, the more stable and efficient a society is.

care to elaborate then? almost all decisions aren't as seemingly easy as you've stated. genuinely curious as most decisions straddle the whole "good" spectrum pretty seriously.

one thing i just went through: should i pick up the contract from a slightly less "good" org, or let 2 1099ers go, whose families will go without income for some period of time?

what's the good choice here in your opinion? or by good do you just mean non-cheating? is incorporating your company in a lower COL/higher talent area cheating in your eyes? etc. gets hairy quick.

I don't think the decisions are easy. Especially under competitive pressure.

> one thing i just went through: should i pick up the contract from a slightly less "good" org, or let 2 1099ers go, whose families will go without income for some period of time?

Depends on the "slightly". If slightly enough, can you reject the contract and help these 1099ers find another contract, by e.g. referring them? I don't know the details of your situation and I'm not going to judge you either way.

I've been on the receiving end of a similar situation in that my boss once told me that there are troubles and he's looking for projects, and one potential contract that would be a good fit for my skills involved work on gambling machines. I refused on ethical grounds, and he later told me he was very happy that I did, because it didn't sit well with him either. Unfortunately, this ended up folding the company. Fortunately, he helped me move to another job and he got a job in a large shop himself, and from what I can tell, this ended up beneficial to everyone involved.

Besides these borderline situations, there's plenty in business world that's happening on the "bad" side. Like, does the grocery store next to my parents' house have to wash spoiling meat with a dish cleaner and sell it as fresh? Does the boss of a certain large secondhand book store in Poland have to mentally abuse his workers, exploiting the fact that he employs people from small towns who may have trouble finding a new job? Does he have to bribe local government inspector so that this doesn't get out[0]? Do restaurants have to offer "grilled" meat which really is microwaved meat with grill marks added with a sandwitch grill?

These are examples of clearly bad behavior. Whenever I befriend people working in any industry, I get to hear new stories like these. Companies doing that may get away with it on an open market, but these things do breed contempt. And come economic turmoil, people with pitchforks won't be checking if you were the (perceivably) rare entrepreneur that was good and honest.

As for what's the good choice in general, I think this is always incremental and case-by-case, but a guiding principle I could offer would be the Golden Rule - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Always strive to turn everything into win-win. Don't exploit people.

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[0] - Allegation I have on good authority, but the party telling me this doesn't want to pursue it or have anything to do with their former boss. Fortunately, the guy got a kick in the butt from the building safety inspectors, who were unwilling to ignore the fact that the walls in the workplace were cracking. I heard the working conditions improved a little bit after that.

competitive pressure is why i noted you won't earn billions.

i say it like that because what 'good' is is subjective. you are right though, the more good there are, whatever that is ^^...., the easier it will be. but to get to that point, people need to personally take that stance, not wait for others to do it.