Hacker News Reader

As mention in a comment above, it is not the consumer's responsibility to provide income to employees of a company providing goods or services. Please stop with this fallacy.

View on HN

Company's providing goods and services in a capitalistic society are entirely dependent on consumers providing the income for their workforce.

How else do you really think this whole thing works. You get to keep your money, but still get all the goods and services provided. That's just silly.

You're conflating consumer responsibility with consumer spending. It's the company's job to provide wages - the company dictates and designs the means to acquire money to provide wages. If the company provides a widget that consumers don't want, is it the consumer's fault the company cannot pay the wages of the employees? That's just silly.

I'm saying "taking a service that you did not pay to receive" is stealing.

Technically stealing is depriving someone from his property which is not the case here. Also one should make a distinction between services. In the case of audiovisual content It can be consumed without changing anything in the life of the producer. I do not say that it’s a good thing but qualifying it of stealing does not seem right.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com