Hacker News Reader

Comment by quietbritishjim | Hacker News Reader

They have a $5/month "starving hacker" subscription level. Morally you ought not to use it if you can afford more, but I expect they'd rather you use it than give them no money at.

Personally, I pay for "project leader" level ($16.00/month) so I can give them a bit more... But I'm not up to "maniacal supporer" ($50.00/month)!

View on HN

"Morally"? According to what moral framework it's wrong to accept the lower price when someone offers you the exact same product at two different prices?

^ This guy gets his groceries from food banks.

Clearly if no such moral framework existed, LWN would not offer both prices.

When they clearly tell you so, and it's a good cause. Why overcomplicate things?

Do you always take what a seller says at face value?

It seems to me that introducing morality into the discussion is overcomplicating it. I don't feel I have any moral obligations with the people I trade with, beyond not deceiving them.

When they tell you "the price is low if A is the case, and high if A is not the case" and you say "I'll take the lower price" and A is not the case then you are deceiving them.

When I said "deceive" I was thinking more along the lines of currency being counterfeit or product not being up to spec. Anything not directly related to the transaction is the private business of each party. I don't ask the people I buy things from to show me their accounting books to see if the price they ask for is fair, so why should I accept any questions regarding how much I'm able to afford?

If a hotel you are planning on staying at for a business trip is offering free rooms for people affected by a natural disaster, do you take the free room?

Apples to oranges.

A hotel has a finite number of rooms. An online publication has no practical limit on the number of subscriptions it can sell, unless it sells them at below cost.

There are also a finite number of people needing to stay there. So imagine you know there are a lot of open rooms, do you still lie and take one?

I assume you're saying that in this hypothetical the hotel has so many rooms that it could host all of those people. In that case, no I probably wouldn't. Not because I think it's immoral, but because I don't know what repercussions I could face if I'm caught in my lie. If I knew for sure that there could be no repercussions then, yes, I probably would lie. I see literally no reason not to do so.

I guess you're right, it's not about morals. It is about common decency (alongside things such as not littering), though.

The moral framework of those see the subscription price as a donation for a good cause.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com