Of iPhones and Hindu villagers
fri27jul2007—30w208d56%—09h39m00s—0utc
And enjoy it you should. If you’re not a thief or a politician you earned it, which, being clear about it, is just a handy way of saying that you did stuff that Other People voluntarily value enough that Apple is willing to exchange an iPhone for your stuff (confident that it can then exchange it with Other People for what it itself really wants). The iPhone is yours and yours alone to enjoy. You earned it. You owe nothing to anyone — not, particularly, guilt.
What is more, both you and Apple, by freely exchanging only for how much each could get from each other, are subtly but importantly cementing the worldwide enterprise that has made it possible for the output of 4 Hindu villagers to seem tiny by comparison.
5 Comments
I have to totally agree with you, in fact, i think one year is too soon for them to enojy, the should work hard enough for 2 straight years with the great blessing that outsourcing represents. If anything that will teach them about how lucky they are, and how lucky we are too!
exxxxxxcellent.We surely do enjoy sarcasm, don’t we?
On the other hand, to steer the conversation to more productive pastures, let me point everyone to a 1-year-old New York Times essay by Peter Singer, What Should a Billionaire Give -- and What Should You? Make no mistake about it, I think he’s wrong, I don’t believe his arguments, and I find them outright dangerous. But there was a time, just at the end of high school, when I fell for a similar line of thought (remember Yo?).
Singer’s long article can be thought of as the argument from ethics of why you should feel guilty about that iPhone; of why, ethically, you have no right to it; of why it’s just plain wrong to own one when there’s so much poverty and disease out there.A controversial utilitarian philosopher, SingerWP can be very persuasive. He probably won’t make you give everything away to charity but he will irk you. It is my hope that the annoyance, the cognitive dissonanceWP, will push you to think harder on these questions. To me, it did.
@sarcasm – don’t we all? :p
@the other comment – haven’t read it yet, will have to, then will answerYa no se hagan bolas! Bajaron el precio del iPhone de $599 a $399 por lo que ahora anildash puede dormir tranquilo.
@elzr: Me acuerdo! No era algo asi como que en lugar de comprar tenis de marca querias que le diera el dinero a lo pobres?? Good times :)