RE: The Morals of the story or lack thereof. (Very long)

["Swanson, Robert" <rswanson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lot's of editing here, but no one wants to re-read this whole thing....

>> From: jim.powell@domain.elided

Says:

>> 
>> This is where you go off track, maybe.  If you mean after 
>> the sale.  Ok.  If you
>> mean before the sale, you are wrong, morally, ethically and 
>> legally.  Its called
>> theft.
>>

I have a lot of trouble with this.  An advertised price is an offer to sell.
Accepting that offer cannot be termed "theft".  If I walk into a used book
store and find "Golf Architecture in America" for $150, and the dealer paid
maybe $15 for it, am I stealing when I buy it, knowing it usually sells for
about $500?  Absolutely not.
      
>> Now it appears that you *knew* that this wasn't close to the 
>> real value of the
>> book.  If this is true, then you stole their money.  Let me 
>> tell you a story. 

He just mentioned he gave them (the bookseller, the authority on book
prices) several chances to check their prices.  Again, absolutely no
"theft".

>> I'm not holding myself up as a moral authority.  I have my 
>> problems, vices and
>> moral burdens.  Theft just doesn't happen to be one of them.
>> 
>> I was remodeling my house several years ago.  This required 
>> hundreds of feet of
>> oak molding.  I went down to the local home supply.  It was 
>> a Menards or Home
>> Depot type place.  Well I got the trim to the register and 
>> the clerk scanned the
>> bar codes for each piece. I'm not paying much attention but 
>> at the end the girl
>> (teenager, how would she know?) asks me for something like 
>> $17.  Now I
>> knew/suspected/divined that there was a problem here.  So I 
>> said that I thought
>> it was wrong and that it should be much more.  She typed in 
>> the SKU code on the
>> terminal.  $1.42 (or close).  Hmmmm.  This is a 16 ft. piece 
>> of oak trim.  Well
>> we know the real story here don't we?  The computer thought 
>> it was a per piece
>> price when it should have been per foot.  I could have paid 
>> the cheap price. 
>> Instead I told her to void the sale, call the manager and 
>> take the next person
>> in line.  It cost me alot of money to do that.  But I don't 
>> have to worry about
>> applying for a job where they give Polygraph tests.  I don't 
>> have to worry about
>> people saying to be careful, I'm a cheat.  I don't have to 
>> have my kids grow up
>> with confused ideas of right and wrong.
>> 

I think most of us have done this many times.  And you are holding yourself
up as a moral authority.  That disclaimer rings a little hollow for someone
giving a lecture.

The analogy is flawed though.  The correct analogy would be to find the
price marked on the shelf at what seems to be too low a price.  Tell the
manager to check it a few times.  Then leave the store to buy it somewhere
else for more.   A moral thing to do?  Not really, just foolish.


>> 
>> Theft is always so much easier to justify when you have company.
>> 

I resent the implication that anyone who got a good deal on the book is a
thief and ask you to apologize to all of us.

Bob Swanson
rswanson@domain.elided

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End of bmw-digest V9 #837
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