TechCrunch featured a new site last week called Do The Right Thing, where users praise or pummel companies for their social concern. The idea is to call companies to higher standards by using the web for public censure or praise. Wal-Mart bashing is a favorite hobby on the site, as expected. Products from the (Red) initiative are praised, again as expected. (Unexpected: Do The Right Thing aims to be a for-profit business).

I can’t see this as a viable business, though I admit a lack of imagination. But it does aim to tap into our growing(?) desire to do good at a distance, to criticize or praise without even trying to grasp economic complexity, and to change the world at the least possible cost to ourselves. The (Red) initiative itself appeals to the same desire, which I addressed here (and I disavow the typos ).

I’m always glad to see people trying new things to make the world better. Yet I fear that deceptively simple ideas will distract us from doing much harder, costlier things that can actually work.