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by tptacek 2608 days ago
How much gratitude do you generally expect for simple, ethical actions that take almost no effort on your part?
2 comments

Generally you would expect a simple amount of gratitude that takes almost no effort on their part. Like "Thank You".
It seems the amount of gratitude should also be proportional (albeit with a small coefficient) to the loss that was prevented.
It's interesting that the voting on this comment has fluctuated up and down. If anyone happens across this old thread and would like to provide a counterargument, I'd be interested in reading it.
Interesting that this was also downvoted, as well as other very reasonable comments in the thread. Some very odd patterns. My original comment went up to 3 and down to 0, second is at 0, and some other comments are gray enough to be somewhere between -2 and 0. Let's see if the experiment continues.
You reject the amount of effort it takes to walk away from $8,000 -- perhaps a semester of tuition for a college student?
Yes, I reject the amount of effort that takes, just like I neglect the amount of effort it takes not to pocket the money you find in a wallet on the ground.
False analogy.
I believe it’s a false analogy too. But why exactly is it false? Is it because taking money from a wallet is obviously immoral and you’re robbing an individual?
If I go to sell an item on eBay (or a pawn shop) and accidentally enter $8 in the price rather than $800, I doubt there is any recourse for me on legal or moral grounds when that item gets bought. Caveat venditor.

Dropping a wallet on the ground is a completely different story where neither party is taking part in a bona fide transaction.

It would be silly to still send an eBay item to the buyer if you accidentally put down $8 instead of $800 as a seller. Or to buy an item if you accidentally put down $800 instead of $8. In both cases I don’t see how you shouldn’t not take part in the transaction.

In the same way people will sell photos of an item for $80 while the product is normally $800. People will think they found an amazing deal but really just be out $80. You could say that was greed talking. It seems more like a scam to me.