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Comment by triggercut | Hacker News Reader

Imagine you had an HDD with every photo you'd ever taken, you have no backups, this is the only place these memories are stored.

A wealthy individual approaches you and asks if they can buy this HDD off you for a large amount of money. You don't have a lot of money, your ability to make money is restricted and your government is always reducing social safety-nets. This proposition looks like your best chance. The wealthy individual takes your HDD, holds it for a while and then physically destroys it in front of you without regard.

But it's fine... Right? It was only some plastic and metal... You can go to the store and buy a new larger HDD with all your new money.

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The wealthy individual in the metaphor is quite up-front that he is buying the HDD to destroy it, and is more than willing to provide counselling and support to get you back on your feet.

The alternative in the metaphor is you keep the HDD, suffer financially and the wealthy person can't become wealthy because these trades are how they make money. It is worse for everyone.

i would say that a lot of people/groups in these types of positions dont have any idea about using money for investment and improvment to get into a more self-sustaing cycle

instead they use it to "just get by for a while" and theyll be back in the same position again later...

How do you propose to stop two [groups of] people from willingly making a trade agreement? If you have an issue with it, what gives you the right, or ability to stop them?

Yeah, 100%. I would do it even for a lesser amount of money.

A new hard drive, now made with 100% recycled culture.

Reducing social benefit programs, i.e. reducing their entitlement to the fruit of the labour of others.

But yeah, imagine this HDD belonged to my sibling that I have supported financially, but I cannot keep supporting them financially to the same extent I have been doing it because times are hard economically. I would somehow feel a bit bad for them, but really I can only do so much.

Archaeology is not free and it requires excess resources, something which mining provides. If you destroy Australia's economy there won't be any Archaeology happening anyway.

EDIT: We can all dream about what wonderful world we would have if there were no scarcity of resources, but resources are scarce. We can work to make them less scarce, and that is actually exactly what BHP is doing when they mine coal.

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