Rampant capitalism. But it's like any other system, greed ultimately ruins everything.
Wilko goes into Administration
- Thread starter nam
- Start date
I think it's fairly easy to feel a sense of guilt benefiting from the failure of something that supports so many people. If my friends suddenly went bankrupt and I was buying their things at a fraction of their apparent value, I would feel awful taking advantage of the situation.
It's like picking the meat off a carcass.
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Supply and demand. Competition etc.
Far more extreme and ruthless things go on in our economy every second that affect the lives of everyone's wealth and jobs, than a few people grabbing a bog brush on the cheap.
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How is anyone "taking advantage of the situation"
Because they're getting things cheaper than they otherwise would, they're only going in there because it's cheap. What is hard to understand about this? The stock needs to be sold, I'm not saying people shouldn't buy it, but I can understand feeling bad directly benefiting from the situation. Are you a sociopath? Or just being obtuse?
Caporegime
To be fair, that's a bit different. Taking advantage of your friend by not giving them going rate on second hand items would be poor form.
Buying or not buying an item on sale at a price set by the company, isn't directly impacting the employee.
I'd feel sorry for the workers if I was shopping in Wilkos atm, but not because I'd bought an item on sale. They don't have to go hand in hand.
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Great take Jono8. Some real original and valuable thoughts there
I think its you that needs to have a bit of a deeper think about things.
If you are happy with how our economy and capitalism works, you should not feel in any way guilty about buying things from a closing down sale.
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But I can still be empathetic enough to realise that the workers feel bad watching everything being sold and the shop suddenly being full of people, only because the business has gone into administration.
It's better than it ending up in landfill or being mass bought by another company to profit off though.
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Empathy is not the same thing as guilt.
Is that where people are getting confused?
Buying the stuff marked down, does in no way change the employee's position. You can be emphatic towards their situation, but it doesn't make sense to feel guilty about buying the products they have on sale. It literally makes no difference whether you buy them or not at this stage.
I empathise with the employees, but would not feel a single ounce of guilt about buying something Wilko are selling at a discount right now.
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Man of Honour
How is anyone "taking advantage of the situation"
You are hard work, is this how you are in real life as well?
Jenny works at Wilko's.
She's going to lose her job because they have gone into administration.
This is going to make her life difficult
Steve is a keen gardener.
He is going to go and buy a load of cut-price gardening equipment from Wilko's before they close down.
This makes Steve happy. He smiles.
Then Steve gets to the shop and gets served by Jenny.
Steve realises that Jenny must be sad because her job is going to vanish.
This makes Steve feel sad, because his happiness is caused by a situation that is making Jenny sad.
Steve literally feels a degree of Jenny's sadness through the context of the situation.
This is called empathising.
It makes Steve feel guilty for profiting from this unfortunate situation.
Is that clearer?
No, not at all.
Steve's happiness from buying the goods at a discount in no way affects Jenny. The cheap marked down goods in the closing down sale are not causing the situation for Jenny.
If Steve knew that buying the goods at such a low price would lead to Jenny losing her job, then he could well feel guilty about that.
You are confusing empathy with guilt.
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Fair. However guilt is very much a part of empathy. Some people just have different levels of it, or just different feelings on things. We are all different.
Man of Honour
No, I am not - the ability to feel guilt (rightly or wrongly - take "White Guilt" for an example) is a large part of empathy.
Nope. What is there to feel guilty about (by definition)?
You can feel sorry for them. I simply don't understand why you would feel guilty for that action. The action doesn't cause the situation and has no bearing on it. Nothing changes for them, whether you buy the product or not.
Caporegime
There's nothing to feel guilty about in this situation though, as your actions aren't directly affecting the employee, unless you've got zero self-awareness and are standing smiling away banging on about how much money you've just saved infront of them. I mean most people who come in are probably saving like a pound on some kitchen cleaner or something lol, not flushing the place down for gardening equipment. You can feel sorry for them losing their jobs without feeling guilty.
You should only feel guilt if you've actually done something wrong.
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Well, language is pretty fundamental when having a discussion about something.
Exactly. There is nothing to feel any guilt about in this situation (for the person buying the on sale goods).
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I know I'm being pedantic, but you could argue that the reason the country is in the decline it is in, is because we have all collectively allowed it to get THIS bad.
I say I'm being pedantic because I wouldn't have a clue how to have actually done anything about it considering my little to no ability to effect change individually. But collectively? Then you need the right individuals to start something though. I'm just rambling. If I think about it too much I just end up grumpy.