On Wed, 2006-02-22 at 13:13 +0000, Immanuel Litzroth wrote:
"Hannu Savolainen"
<hannu(a)opensound.com> writes:
If you run out from barber's shop without
paying it's very clearly a
crime. You have stolen 1/N of barber's monthly salary. Is there anything
that makes 1/Nth if artist's or programmer's salary less criminal than
stealing 1/Nth of barber's salary?
This is a laughably simplistic model of economic and social
reality. Suppose next to the barber B1 a second barber B2 moves in who
is subsidized by the government and can charge lower prices. B1 sees a
drop in his wages, so that he cannot afford a haircut anymore, and
runs out of B2's shop after having his hair cut. Now B2 comes into
B1's shop to have a haircut. Is he guilty of a crime if he runs out or
not?
They are both guilty, as they both ran out. And this is a pretty good
argument that the government should not subsidize barbers ;-)
Lee