Hacker News Reader

> Your argument seems to be that utility should outweigh ethical concerns

Not GP, but that seems a bit unfair. Utilitarianism in various flavours is a popular ethical framework; for those who subscribe to it, ethical concerns are properly calibrated and measured in utility.

I suspect your argument (especially the SA comparison) would be better expressed as a tension between long- and short-term utility, but don't want to put words into your mouth.

> What does that have to do with ethics, really? Your argument seems to be that utility should outweigh ethical concerns.

Some would argue that denying people the ability to access information easily is unethically harming them. It preserves your own privilege instead of extending it to the less well off.

There are real ethical questions here that can be weighed. It's perhaps not quite as simple for some people as money on one side and every single possible ethical factor on the other.

"Do you not think that the ordinary people in South Africa have a better life today as a result of those sanctions and the collapse of the apartheid regime?"

Yes their lives are much better, just like the Zimbabweans.

>What does that have to do with ethics, really? The argument seems to be that utility should outweigh ethical concerns.

It's called utilitarianism and here it demonstrates nicely that ethics comes in various flavors