Moral or Immoral?

[nakinate]

I understand being nice to someone who's on hard times, but it isn't up to me to decide if someone should pay $2500 for an AR. That's between them and their bank account.

 

[T.Lex]

Oh c'mon. Nothing personal. We're just talking philosophy here. I haven't changed a bit. I'm still the sometimes compassionate, sometimes snarky ******* I've always been. You're talking in one of my favorite domains of philosophy. Morality. I have opinions. I will share them. I may be snarky when I share opinions. It's nothing personal.

My friend, indeed, I was just ribbing you for what seemed like not really reading what I was saying.

We should probably clearly state for the record that we are not married, have not dated, and without significant amounts of tequila have probably not had a romantic relationship.

 

[HoughMade]

I understand being nice to someone who's on hard times, but it isn't up to me to decide if someone should pay $2500 for an AR. That's between them and their bank account.

If one thinks that they are being gouged...don't buy.

Seems too simple, somehow.

 

[Hkindiana]

I came to this link thinking it was about mushroom identification . . . . Imagine my SURPRISE . . . . ,!!!

 

[jamil]

If one thinks that they are being gouged...don't buy.

Seems too simple, somehow.

Whoever invented the free market musta been a genius.

 

[nakinate]

If one thinks that they are being gouged...don't buy.

Seems too simple, somehow.

Agreed. Also, it's not my responsibility to find out whether or not someone is on "hard times". It's my responsibility to be reasonably sure they are a proper person.

On an unrelated note, I may start dressing like a hobo when I buy guns from the classifieds. Maybe I'll develop a good sob story to go with it.

 

[thecapn2004]

Capitalism! Yay! Sell it for what the market will allow.

 

[Goodcat]

Everyone who's investments owned shares of gun manufactures profited. My IRA took a big leap.

 

[38special]

This question comes up all the time on any number of things. My answer is always this.

What percentage of profit is immoral and who decides that?

It's 10% profit OK? 20%? 50%? 500%? Who gets to decide?

Usually, folks can't come up with anything other than arbitrary nonsense.

The market determines value, period. Nothing moral or immoral about it.

 

[T.Lex]

This question comes up all the time on any number of things. My answer is always this.

What percentage of profit is immoral and who decides that?

It's 10% profit OK? 20%? 50%? 500%? Who gets to decide?

Morality isn't about numbers. How many affairs are ok to have while married?

Morality is about principles. Is the 10% profit motivated by greed, in a market where 5% is the norm? (There are low-margin markets where 5% would be like finding gold.)

Numbers do not have context. Principles establish a framework of personal action in any context.

 

[Beowulf]

I honestly don't even understand the question. I don't know why there would be anyone who would have any moral qualms about selling something they bought for a lower price as a current market value. People literally do it all the time (and possibly a good chunk of the folks on this thread have done it or have had close friends and family who have done it without blinking an eye).

The best example of this is the housing market.

Say I bought a house in La Jolla, just outside of San Diego, CA in 1965 for $30,000 (which was $10k over median for the year in the US). Now, in 2017 dollars, that would be about $240,000. Not cheap, but not crazy out of this world pricing (probably a mortgage payment of about $1000 a month).

Now, I'm getting ready to retire and I hate the stupid gun laws in California and want to move to good old Indiana where we can shoot all we want. So, I take a look at the market and find that I can sell my house for $1,500,000 (I've seen real examples of this).

Should I have moral qualms about selling my house for the now market value, even though it is 50 times what I originally paid and 6 times what I paid if I adjust for inflation? No, of course not. Since that time, Southern California has had a population explosion and millions of people moved there and still want to move there, so the demand is sky high. You'd be an idiot not to take the current market value, move to Indiana, buy a really nice house pretty much anywhere you wanted in the state and still be easily sitting on a million bucks+ to ease your retirement (or make a moderate start on your new gun collection ).

So, why is your Echo trigger or bump stock a different situation? If you are going to get upset at anyone (other than obviously at the murderous piece of excrement who did the shooting), get upset at the idiots that run our government who are fueling the fears that these will be banned. If you don't want your Echo trigger, what's wrong with selling to someone else, at a price they will voluntarily pay, so that they can be sure to have one in case future production is banned? As someone who owns a couple of machineguns (and bought them well after the '86 cut off and paid way, way more than they were going for in 1985), I'm certainly glad I was able to find one for sale and gladly paid the current market price so I could have one (especially as they have since gone up even more in price). I can tell you that if I ever do decide to sell them (not planning on it, but who knows what the future might bring), I can guarantee you that I will sell them for as much as I can and have zero concern about "gouging".

 

[Alpo]

I talked to mom. She said, if you don't like it, sell it. Get what you can for it. It isn't as if you really need the thing. It isn't water or food in a time of disaster.