It's easy to write off HN outrage as mere classism; of course that completely sidesteps the question of who is right and who is wrong. I'm certain that there are a significant number of people here who agree with the author, or some subset of the author's views, and that there are a majority who disagree. To state that is to state that "black people want affirmative action" or "republicans will vote for mccain." It's statistically true, in a vague and general sort of way, but doesn't really say anything about whether or not we should have affirmative action or whether or not mccain should win.
The real problem I have with the authors is that they operate from the presupposition that operating a business (which, on a transactional level is really just free exchange, like exchanging fish for books) is somehow unfair. The authors are neither party in the exchange; they are providing neither the fish nor the books, and are merely standing from the sidelines, saying "You should not exchange six books for twelve fish!" which is of course none of their business.
The only other way I can see to do it would be to have some sort of a middleman who decided the amount of fish being traded for books, and he would probably take a cut off the top for his 'service'. In gradeschool we called this 'bullying', but one man's moral outrage is another man's fairness I guess.
The real problem I have with the authors is that they operate from the presupposition that operating a business (which, on a transactional level is really just free exchange, like exchanging fish for books) is somehow unfair. The authors are neither party in the exchange; they are providing neither the fish nor the books, and are merely standing from the sidelines, saying "You should not exchange six books for twelve fish!" which is of course none of their business. The only other way I can see to do it would be to have some sort of a middleman who decided the amount of fish being traded for books, and he would probably take a cut off the top for his 'service'. In gradeschool we called this 'bullying', but one man's moral outrage is another man's fairness I guess.