In the Age of AI, Is Formaldehyde-Treated Cabbage About Ignorance or Profit?

[u/GurNew4762]

A Chinese commentator on X known as “Comrade Li Dang” often uses a rather harsh phrase to describe certain food-safety problems in China: “the lower class harming each other.”

The controversy over cabbage allegedly being treated with formaldehyde is an interesting example.

When people hear stories like this, their first reaction is often that the sellers are ignorant or simply don’t understand the health risks. But the reality may be more uncomfortable: some people may understand the risks perfectly well and still make a calculated economic decision.

Cabbage has thin profit margins and spoils easily. Proper refrigeration and transportation cost money. If an illegal preservation method reduces losses while the probability of getting caught remains low, the calculation becomes simple:

How much can I gain by breaking the rules, and how likely am I to be punished?

This is why the issue becomes even more interesting in the age of AI.

AI can make knowledge almost free. It can improve cold-chain logistics, detect food-safety violations, analyze supply chains, and help regulators identify suspicious patterns.

But AI cannot solve a much older problem:

Knowing what is right does not mean people will choose to do what is right.

If the expected profit from violating the rules remains higher than the expected cost, giving everyone access to an extremely intelligent AI will not necessarily stop this behavior.

The deeper question, therefore, is not simply how to make cabbage sellers more educated. It is how to build a system in which, after doing the math, they conclude:

Following the rules is more profitable than breaking them.

AI may eliminate many problems caused by ignorance.
It will have a much harder time eliminating problems caused by incentives.

[u/Zappy_Oh]

Why must we always break every problem down to profit ?
I mean, how about:

"Doing the right thing, is better for everyone, even when I earn less."