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A comment on The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract. Parent comment

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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by dictum on Friday July 27, 2018 @08:45PM (#17630776)
Are HN readers not allowed to express pity (assuming this is what is happening here) via their interests?

I can understand not having much sympathy for criminals (not as individuals, but as a generic group) but a worldview that abolishes pity for underclasses (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17630121, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17630115) is going to take a little more explaining before a sizable number of HNers embrace it.

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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by mmirate on Friday July 27, 2018 @08:53PM (#17630803)
> a little more explaining

Does "I'm not among them" not suffice? Sheesh.

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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC on Friday July 27, 2018 @10:46PM (#17631224)
No, because corruption in society increases the probability that you will be among them at some point.
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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by dang on Saturday July 28, 2018 @02:38AM (#17631925)
If you continue to post uncivilly to HN, we will ban you. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site as intended, or not at all.
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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by dang on Saturday July 28, 2018 @02:38AM (#17631924)
You've been seriously breaking the site guidelines. Please review them (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and follow the rules from now on.
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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by mmirate on Saturday July 28, 2018 @07:33AM (#17632707)
I don't understand. I'm not trying to troll here.
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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by dang on Saturday July 28, 2018 @12:50PM (#17633894)
Personal attacks, flamebait, and acerbic sprinkles ("oh please", "sigh", "yawn", etc.) are not ok. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all.
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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by danso on Friday July 27, 2018 @08:24PM (#17630666)
I think it's fine to accept that this article was written by what seems to be a pro-prison reform group (I saw it retweeted by a friend, who I believe works in that area), but that doesn't make it irrelevant to the tech entrepreneurial crowd. Just as pricing strategies and revenues for pay-to-win mobile games is interesting to folks here who have no intention on playing such games.

But yes, there is an additional element of public policy discussion, particularly whether we should be cautious of the wider consequences of seemingly no-strings-attached contracts. Not everyone shares your clearcut perspective on what amenities convicts should have access to. But the bulk of these costs are borne by the families of these convicts, who are generally not morally culpable in their family members' crimes.

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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by mmirate on Friday July 27, 2018 @08:34PM (#17630717)
> But the bulk of these costs are borne by the families of these convicts

Then they're idiots, too.

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Re:The hidden costs in a “no-cost” tablet contract by danso on Friday July 27, 2018 @08:37PM (#17630741)
You're entitled to your opinion, but debating the moral culpability of criminals is a tangent to the article.
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