Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by juancb 1890 days ago
There you go "some" of the value. So either the store or the manufacturer eats the rest of the lost value, in either case the person using the policy at face value is taking value. In a lot of cases taking value would be stealing, but this is one of those cases where there's only a social contract and a set of norms that guard it and it's not seen as such. Think of a complementary offering of some kind based on an honor system, some treat or trinket in a bowl. Sure you can take just one or take them all. If you take them all you can argue that they're free but you're still a that guy that helps bring about a tragedy of the commons.

Culturally in the states and Latin America that makes you jerk and people will hate you for it. So there is social pressure in place to help regulate those events, but it may not always be the case everywhere.