Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertSmalls
I believe it would be morally wrong to withhold your skills from society
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If someone got their education from public schools (tax payers paid for it), then that person should give something back to society. Look at Chris McCandless from Krakauer's book "Into the wild": He goes through the public schooling system, and soon after finishing high school goes to live off the land in Alaska. Take, don't give. On the other hand, noone asked him if he wants to go to school, as school is usually inficted on people at a young age, often against their will.
On the other hand, if someone is self-educated then he himself should decide on which skills he shares with society. If somebody knows how to construct a bomb using household materials, should he go ahead and do it? Should he publish this info on the Web or should he keep it to himself? My personal opinion is that he should keep it to himself, because people can't be trusted to act intelligently and/or morally. In an ideal world he would publish it, and that info would be there for scientific purposes, not for killing others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
But taking something that would otherwise be thrown away isn't mooching. Mooching would be if you made a habit of showing up at your friend's house every night around dinnertime...
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Personally I have nothing against eating someone's left-overs. On many occasions I've polished off someone's plate. Unfortunately, I've had to resign from many more plates, since society doesn't approve of this behaviour. I've never done it because I didn't have money for food, but b/c I don't like things to get wasted. If I can eat something that would normally get tossed, and save some money at the time, then good. If I use that saved money on something useful, like donating to a charity or buying someone a lunch, then even better. Having somebody else sponsor your food when you can easily afford it is not good. In an ideal world, people wouldn't waste so much. They would eat out the fridge
before buy more junk. Restaurants would have more portion size options than "Jumbo" and "XXXL", allowing people to eat less without throwing anything out.