Should you profit at the expense of others?

 

If others don’t matter — then it doesn’t matter if you profit at their expense or not.

Just like it doesn’t matter if you satiate your culinary desires by eating succulent steak, at the expense of some cow

 

But if you claim that others matter — then it does matter HOW you profit

Then the morally right way to profit is to profit by delivering value

You want both sides to gain

If others matter — then those you deal with matter — then fact of them benefiting from dealing with you matters

 

Now, who judges if others have been benefited or not?

The simple answer is: they themselves do.

They voluntarily deal with you — therefore if they paid you for it, or gave it to you for money — they wanted it, and were benefited by it

 

The less simple answer is that you DO have a choice of WHAT you provide to others (or have others provide you)

That you can decide to NOT give something to someone, even if they think they want it

Or not TAKE something from someone, even if they want to give you that

 

Is it possible that you know better what is right than they do? Including what is right for them?

It is possible, actually

And can they get it ANYWAY, if they really want it? Certainly

Thus you yourself don’t participate in what you believe to be wrong

And for the time being you don’t allow others to do what you consider is wrong

But you don’t forcibly prevent them from it either, since there where your liberty ends — is where their liberty begins, and it’s none of your business no more

In other words, you exercise your liberty, and ONLY the extent of your liberty — to bring about what you believe to be RIGHT

 

Now, of course, this is very theoretical

In practice, of course you’re self-interested, and it’s a good thing

Of course when you receive substantial value, benefit for something — you only care so much about what is right

Not merely because you’re a fickle spineless bastard, but simply because drawing the line is extremely difficult

At some point the value to be gained is so large that to forego it would be tantamount to losing tremendous value — why should you be the one losing tremendously? Especially for what you believe is minor wrong to someone else

This is valid

 

The good news is, you’re not a politician

You’re not a CEO

Most likely you’re no one

Therefore you may not actually ever even have an opportunity to sell yourself

 

What you will have opportunity to do is decide HOW you’ll try to bring VALUE to your life

And, like I said, you’ll likely won’t be one of those people who “didn’t have a choice”

Quite the opposite, you and I, have WAY TOO MANY CHOICES

There are multitude career paths

Multitude weird ways to make a living

To create

To work

To be useful

 

Thus

Amidst this multiplicity

Various choices will have different qualities,

including different moral quality

E.g. to be a salesman, or engineer

To be a politician, or educator

And that will also be your choice

 

…And this is when you will have the chance to prove your MORALITY

When you will decide IF you profit at the expense of others

To what degree

What you give

What value you bring

What you create

What your legacy will be

 

And indeed some didn’t have a choice. Please be understanding. They are just human

Others gladly chose themselves, and sold their souls, for thirty pieces of silver

I do think we can safely spit on them, without much more debating

I think we nicely argued here how much they’re worth

 

Make your choice

Don’t be scared, don’t be greedy

The world is very abundant

You may be surprised how much it gives back when you give