TheBoss

Jake i understand what you're saying but that's not the point i was trying to make. Lemme give you an example, say a sweater sells for 30$ in a shop and the raw materials used to make it cost 5$, the labour used to make it is therefore worth 25$. In order to make a profit, the company who employs the labourer must therefore under-pay them e.g it only pays the worker 10$ and keeps the remaining 15$ as profit. I know this is a very simplistic and basic example but the point is, profit can only be made if someone else loses out, if you want a proper explaination it is called the theory of surplus-value, type it into a search engine or something. P.S. i'm not saying i don't like with capitalism, the free-market e.t.c. but i at least have the guts to admit that it's fundamentally unfair

It's called sarcasm moron, would you like me to spell that for you? yes i realise that i have already typed it out but i wasn't sure if you'd catch on. Despite the fact that my post wasn't serious, your counter-argument was hardly earth shattering. "You're also full of shit" - thankyou for that wonderful insight, y'know as i was typing i didnt once stop to ask myself "am i full of shit", come to think of it i've completely changed my mind, that's sarcasm again btw (S.A.R.C.A.S.M). I was just getting over that bombshell when you knocked me down with "Don't try to justify stealing, because at the end of the day, it's still stealing" - genius! you should write that down incase a man with a loaded gun ever asks you to prove you're worthy of living. So you're saying stealing, lying and cheating are never justified? (off topic what is it like living in black and white? don't you find it makes it hard to co-ordinate what you're wearing?) what about a poor man stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family? Plato once said that a lie is justified if it is for the greater good of the people - but how can you trust him, he probobaly never played a computer game in his life. People keep saying "it's capitalism, either pay for it or go without" - well capitalism stems from Liberal and individualist doctrines based on utility maximisation. They state that it is human nature to gain the most that you can out of any given situation - how can something be universaly and undeniably wrong if it is human nature?. Even basic free market economics tells you that black markets arise when the price for something in real terms exceeds the utility gained from it, they will continue to exist until the producer drops the price to a level where the majority are satisfied, allowing action to be taken against the minority who continue to operate against the law - THAT'S CAPITALISM!

The way i look at it is, all these media products made profit, and in order for that to happen, the workers who produced it must have been underpaid for their labour to create a profit margin for the company they work for. Therefore, me paying for games, music or movies that have been made in this manner would only be encouraging inequality and the exploitation of individuals by big corporations to make profit. By downloading something for free i am recognising the talent of the artists (who are judged on the quality of their products and not paid on commission), but deterring companies from exploiting others for their personal benefit. I lie, cheat and steal... but for the right reasons