Ngwira
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2013
So many different opinions on this thread...Not unethical.
So many different opinions on this thread...Not unethical.
Ridiculous. Frugal? Not exactly what I would useI have a former friend who claimed to be "frugal" by doing things that I deemed were unethical. For example, to get Florida resident tickets, she created a fake Florida college student id. She also doctored her mortgage statement with a Florida address even though she lives in NJ. She claims that she could not afford to go without doing these things.
Other things she bragged about doing were: Buying a toy at a thrift store (one of those walking dogs- new in box) and returning it a Target for full price. Abusing Bed Bath and Beyond's return policy by returning a used, beat up vacuum, (that she did not even buy there) and getting a store credit for a brand new vacuum.
She also frequently pretended to be a "poor single mom (husband lived with her)" so that her kids would be able to attend extra curricular activities for free. She is no longer my friend for obvious reasons, but I wanted to know, how far would you go to be "frugal"?
That could be considered MORE ethical because by reusing goods, you are being a better steward of the environment than purchasing new.What about a wealthy household shopping at the Goodwill? A coworker said that only poor people should shop at the Goodwill. Is it unethical for someone who can afford "retail" to shop at thrift stores?
I think so too..but she was adamant about the person who could "afford" higher prices taking from the poor who could only afford to shop thrift.That could be considered MORE ethical because by reusing goods, you are being a better steward of the environment than purchasing new.
Goodwill uses thrift store sales to help people...again, it could be more ethical than buying new.
What about a wealthy household shopping at the Goodwill? A coworker said that only poor people should shop at the Goodwill. Is it unethical for someone who can afford "retail" to shop at thrift stores?
Knock off that looks like the original. Ok so are you saying that only rich people can wear labels?
I just ask what Plato or Socrates would do, then I just do that.
Isn't the whole knockoff thing somewhat of a grey area? I use a laptop with Microsoft Windows that was basically a knockoff off the operating system that Apple was using. Apple also copied the look and feel of the operating system from something Xerox developed but was too stupid to realize what a goldmine they had and never fully developed it.
As someone said upthread, it depends on if its a counterfeit - which infringes on someone's copyright (or what you are talking about is patents) or a knockoff.
(Computer companies pay a lot of money to each other to use each others patented technology - and spend a lot of time suing each other over infringement).
That is why I think it is a grey area. If it wasn't a grey area patent lawyers wouldn't have a booming business. Obviously an identical copy of a patented product is illegal.