Re:Don't be evil down the gurgler (Score 1)

> However what is being sacrificed? The ethics of Google. What is being gained by the sacrifice? Access to China == profit.
> ...
> If everyone, every company goes along with these policies then what motivation is there to change them?

The big picture here isn't Google's motivates for profit, which are obvious. It's whether it's more effective to exert change in China by isolationism or by involvement. I for one believe that Google, the US, and the world, are only going to be able to encourage further democratic changes in China by engagement instead of isolating them.

By choosing to isolate China because you don't agree with some of their policies, you end up encouraging them to be more and more oppressive. This is because without economic development, the coutry really won't have the means to be able to allow more freedoms. And instead will be forced to become more and more extreme the other way. ie North Korea.

However, if you choose to become economically invested in a China, like we've been doing for 30 years now, and work to encourage growth in whatever means that you are allowed, you end up with dual benefits. One being that China has become economically dependent on us which leads to us being safer in general, and gives us much more clout to encourage change. And two, democratic changes end up developing naturally, because with more economic prosperity, you end up with a more educated populous that will demands changes.

Democracies can't be built in a day, no matter how much we might wish otherwise. It's going to take a time for China to continue growing and give it's citizens more and more freedoms. But they already recognized a while ago that strict Communism isn't an effective economic model, which is why they've already instituted the democratic and capatistic changes that they have. With time, they will be able to make more. And I believe that is the real trend.

As much as I find the decision to censor unsettling, it's actually an easy decision. And I for one would much prefer that a company like Google, which has a motto of not being evil, to be the one doing the censoring and admitting to it. Because the alternative is a company that wouldn't even bother admitting to it or cared about whether it was truly doing evil or not.

Bravo Google.