Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by gradstudent 4528 days ago
> I wouldn't call collectors who act out of irrationality stupid since you have to look at the motivation behind a deal situationally — I'd just say it's on the edge of being an unethical waste of money.

Unethical? Huh? Ethics is concerned with morality; with right and wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong about paying large sums of money for beat-up bits of electronics. It's just plain ol' stupid.

2 comments

One good reason might be if you think the value is going to increase beyond what you paid for it, like people paying whatever mad amount for bitcoins.

I think people who spend huge amounts on diamonds are stupid, but everyone has their reasons.

There are loads of ethical systems that condemn wastefulness of money; the US has had at various points at least a plurality, if not a majority of people ascribe to moral systems derived from puritanism, so at least in the US, it is unsurprising to hear someone saying that wasting money is unethical.