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I don't see it as a moral problem per se, but as with other forms of addiction it's too easy to put your personal or family's security at risk, plus there's a moral hazard in that it encourages entry to the market of people who prey on the addiction of others.

I'm not sure what to do about the latter. It's like drugs; I think drugs should generally be legal but it's a fact that many drug dealers are predatory individuals.




This is great analysis. My opposition to using drugs follows that logic: by using them, you are implicitly supporting the predatory system.

Your mention of "market" in that way makes me think of viaticals[1], where the life insurance policies of people near death are bought for a profit. In a way, the people who now own the policies have an interest in the death of the other.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viatical_settlement. A great book on this subject and how the prevalence of markets has degraded norms is What Money Can't Buy by Michael Sandel (http://www.amazon.com/What-Money-Cant-Buy-Markets/dp/0374203...).




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