Wrong to exploit? Whats your opinion?

Mods if this is in the wrong place I apologize. I couldn't for the life of me decide where this kind of topic should go.

Anyways,
Say theoretically, you knew people being taken advantage of. Say you knew the truth and at first you tried to share this with them in order to help them. Let me explain more clearly and then I'll present the question;

You tell them that they are being taken advantage of.

They don't believe you.

You then show them that they are.

Still, they don't believe you.

Finally you demand that they take action - you demand they take action in order to save themselves!

But then; they laugh.

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The Question:

At this point in time, considering you were able to gain off of the secret, would you use the secret to have an advantage over those who simply would not believe you?

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For example; a weird story I made up to help clear up the question(but works, I guess)

Say you knew an old rich man who was very kind. He worked very hard his entire life and was able to amass a fortune off of sweat and hard work. He was very fond of his pet cat so he had one thousand cat sculptures made when little "scratches" died, out of pure gold mind you, and set them all over his yard. Don't worry - his yard has a HUGE fence around it with the sharpest barbed wire imaginable at the top.

One night as you drive by you notice a hole in the fence. As you get closer to investigate you are startled as a man with his arms full of cat sculptures flees from the hole and back into town. Immediately; the responsible citizen in you takes hold and you go to inform the old man.

"Old man" you say, in much nicer terms. "You have a hole in your fence, and I saw a man run away with some of your golden statues!"

The old man doubts you. "That fence is too impenetrable."

So you walk back out to the hole. You take a photo of the hole and surrounding location. As you were taking photos, once again you see not one, but three men run away with more statues! You capture a picture of them as well and take the photos to the old man.

"Nonsense!" He cries. "Those photos must be manipulated. I built my fence so that no-one would ever be able to steal my precious statues."

You decide to take the matter into your own hands. You rush out to the hole in the fence. The sight before you astonishes you. There is not only one hole, but multiple all around the perimeter now. You even see the local police having their hands at some of the statues. (No threat of arrest or consequences)

You rush back to the old man.

"Old man!" You scream!... "Get outside and protect your statues!!!"

This time his response is different.

Old Man: "FOOL!" ..As you wipe the spit from your face he blasted out of his mouth, he continues..; "Only a fool would believe that anyone can get through my fence. My fence is impenetrable, and no-one will ever be able to steal my statues. Get out of my house and stop with your damn conspiracy theories!"

Now pissed off, you walk out the door, down the steps, and into the yard. On your way out of his yard you trip over a couple statues on accident. You look up and see over 2 dozen people loading their arms with statues.

The question:
.Do you take the statues you tripped over on your way out?

Great questions, I would say it would depend on how the secret was intended to be used for. For example as a power base, then no I would say that it would be wrong to give out the information. If it was used for personal gain in other matters, then no again it would be wrong to give out the information. Now, that being said if it is used for the benefit of another and not for self, then yes it would be acceptable. But to force something on another who is not ready to receive it, even if you feel it is right to do is wrong. That is my opinion on the matter.

Well, obviously I don't know the facts which makes it difficult to make a decision of right or wrong, but in my opinion, if it wasn't at least a little bit wrong, then the thought of it being an exploitation wouldn't even come into your mind. Since the thought of it possibly being exploiting, most likely means there is some wrong to it, which your conscience doesn't want to accept. It seems to me, that you probably already believe it is wrong and are looking for some sort of approval from someone else, in order to push yourself to go through with it.
So in conclusion, yeah I think in most cases its probably wrong but right or wrong basically comes down to each persons beliefs.

No.

You put this in personal stories, so I'm thinking that you actually have an experience in your mind that you are not yet willing to share. So, I will share one of mine.

My mom passed away 2 years ago after a very bad case of osteoporisis. She was also very religious. One of the members of her church was a chiropractor and he had convinced her that he (and God) could heal her with supplements and chiropractic treatments. She spent about $1,500 a month on him!

I screamed, I yelled, I through tantrums, I threatened to call the authorities on him for elderly abuse! My mom nearly deleted me from the family trust, but I kept yelling. Finally, becuse of her physical deterioration, we had to put her in a facilty, and they wouldn't allow him in, or let her take his supplements. Thank God!

Anyway, I would never do that, take advantage of a person who is weak for personal gain. But, I will stand up for myself or others if I think someone is taking advantage of me or someone I love.

I'm trying to follow here: can you be more specific? Is this an ethical question or are you in the sales or some related field - where you just realized that you can make money (legally I am guessing) from people that are easily manipulated?

Context, please-thank you

Originally posted by The_Zomar
At this point in time, considering you were able to gain off of the secret, would you use the secret to have an advantage over those who simply would not believe you?

Depending on what the "secret" is, I would probably find it morally wrong to capitalize on someone in the said manner, but I wouldn't go out of my way to help the person being taken advantage of, if they had not heeded my earlier warnings.

People are exploited by the MSM
People are exploited by the insurance companies
People are exploited by their own governments
People are exploited by their religions
People are exploited by the gas companies
People are exploited by hospitals and health care providers

People who think they aren't being exploited are often exploited without their ever being aware of it.
Do Nike jackets keep you warmer? Is an ipod really neccessary? 4 bucks a gallon for gas when last week it was 3.50?
The trick is to make the ppl think they need what you've got - or either make it illegal not to HAVE what you've got - then charge outrageous prices for it.

What kind of exploitation are you talking about? I've done typed the word so many times it doesn't even sound right.

reply to post by windword


That sounds like a terrible situation. It would make you feel so helpless.


I intended my post to be very very general, but I'm about to edit the original post with an example story.

reply to post by The_Zomar


If someone else owns the statues and you take them, its theft. Pure and simple. Doesn't matter if the guy is an ass or an idiot or you are pissed off or other people are stealing them. For that matter, you should call the police about the ongoing thievery. Is this like watching rioters loot a shop even if the owner thought it was well protected by a steel gate? Protesting is fine. Looters should be shot in my opinion. Looting is not first amendment rights. Theft is theft.

Originally posted by jaxnmarko
reply to post by The_Zomar

 

If someone else owns the statues and you take them, its theft. Pure and simple. Doesn't matter if the guy is an ass or an idiot or you are pissed off or other people are stealing them. For that matter, you should call the police about the ongoing thievery. Is this like watching rioters loot a shop even if the owner thought it was well protected by a steel gate? Protesting is fine. Looters should be shot in my opinion. Looting is not first amendment rights. Theft is theft.

I never stated how I would answer the question so I hope that wasn't aimed at me personally.

But I do agree with you, it would definitely be theft by any means.
It's a hard question to answer and satisfy every side.

Someone could say "Would it be wrong to steal from Hitler?" Of course the first thing you think of would be of course not, it's Hitler! But stealing is stealing is stealing. . .

If these cats belong to more than the old man then perhaps you should take your evidence to some other old men. Some of them won't be as closed minded, but then some of them may be taking cats as well so be careful. It sounds like you are going to need some help if you want to fix the hole.