Quote:
Originally Posted by SetBuilder
Ethics teaches us what conduct is to be valued, and what conduct is detrimental, to society as a whole. One test I like to use to determine if a character trait is ethical (or virtuous) is to ask "what would happen if everyone acted in this way?" That is, what would happen if a great number of people began to hoard valuable items compulsively? The world would not be a happy place, I would imagine. This is why vices are toxic to mankind, because if hedonism is valued over everything else, we have chaos.
I do not believe this conduct is acceptable. If you want a profit bad enough, produce something instead of mooching.
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How does society benefit if something is borderline and NOBODY does it? Drawing a hard line on wether something is ethical based on benefit to society is quite the challenge.
As an example, I don't think that fast food employees being lazy or not caring about doing a good job is good for society, or for them. But it's not unethical.
How many of our prewar cards are still around because of hoarding? Or other slightly off behavior. You could say that by not sending them off to a WWII paper drive they hindered the countrys efforts. Ethical?
Having a few hundred caramel cards in the attic for a century or so? Surely nobody benefitted over that time, although they have now. Ethical?
Or how about bringing home a sheet of cards your company is printing? They're only going to throw them out, and your kid will enjoy cutting them out and doing whatever kids do with cards. surely the company would think of it as stealing, while to the kid it's a marvelous gift. And a century on, those have become treasures to some people even if they're cut a bit crooked and might be missing a color or six. Ethical?
If someone wants to buy a bunch of the same card that's really not a problem. Some people will pay a bit more and to them it's a detriment. Some will sell for more, and to them it's a benefit. Seems like the net result is nothing.
And sometime get a look at the volume of stuff any large museum keeps "for study" It's usually orders of magnitude more than they display. No immediate benefit there, maybe no benefit in my lifetime. But maybe someday.
Steve B