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A comment on Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon by prodigal_erik on Saturday November 12, 2011 @11:31PM (#3229916)
If only the winner pays, it's just a silly game. But when the losers also pay, it becomes a genuinely abusive exploit of human irrationality which most people are not aware of. Please take it down.

http://www.mediate.com/articles/noll1.cfm

http://www.heretical.com/pound/dollarl.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mind-over-money.html

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon by csallen on Sunday November 13, 2011 @02:35AM (#3230257)
Except none of those are good analogies to what's going on here, where people aren't actually bidding on something of monetary value. I find it hard to buy your argument that this is in any way unethical.
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Re:Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon by Tichy on Sunday November 13, 2011 @01:12PM (#3231358)
The losers are winners until another winner comes along.
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Re:Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon by drivebyacct2 on Sunday November 13, 2011 @12:38AM (#3230084)
Lots of huge businesses are based on irrationality. Cigarettes, gambling, etc. A fool and their money are easily parted.
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Re:Show HN: RichestOnTheWeb - my submission to Hacka2thon by scrod on Sunday November 13, 2011 @02:17AM (#3230226)
And those businesses are accordingly regulated by society. But good luck trying to foster that winner-takes-all free-market world of yours. I'm sure it'll be a real blast.
[ Parent | on HN ]