So, right and wrong is defined by whether an authority finds out or not? Some cultures just have incompatible cultural values, it's this simple. Each person makes their own choices. I was just surprised how low ethical and moral standards so many here apparently have.
Poor people should be held to lower moral standards because they can't afford to be truthful? That is a very strange principle to apply. But hey, as said, I don't care what anyone decides for themselves. I was only surprised by the specific choice to lie by so many. I am a firm believer that choosing to lie will not be a one time offense but is a life choice and it will define a person and his/her legacy. And it usually causes great damage when the stakes are higher than in this case. All small crooks think they get away with the last transgression until they don't. Typical mindset of narrow minded people with too little life experience.
...believer... Worth underlining that, because what you're describing is nothing like my experience, probably because it's the version of morals you've been taught to believe in. A random example, most of the people in my age I grew up with downloaded movies illegally in their youths where they wouldn't have afforded [all of] them. Of those I still know and have discussed this with say they are legal big movie consumers. They are coincidentally outstanding citizens today (to my knowledge, of course I can't know about hidden crimes or w/e). According to your beliefs they should be small crooks or something similar. Note that in this case, I wouldn't even have called them immoral even if they had got caught by complaints filed by the overzealous film industry lobby. As an adult and a game industry veteran, I've been on the opposite side of the fence having my work "stolen" routinely in a way that might even be net positive on the number of paying customers. My version of morality is when your action causes no real harm or opportunity cost. A problem with that applied to this case is that screwing up in trading on margin is a random event, so you can't technically fully know if you will not cause harm even if your entire portfolio is say AAPL at 1.2x leverage. To be fair I was taught your version of absolute morality as a small child, and it's what I will pass on to my future children, because I don't expect them to be able to make independent decisions until older and their moral foundation needs to be absolute at its core.
Not sure I can agree with your illegal copy example. The issue there was that most kids did not even know it was illegal because the entire environment surrounding illegal copies of movies and software was so corrupt. I am not talking about the movie or software industry. They were nuts charging 30 dollars for a music CD. But I am talking about all the kids. There was simply nobody around them who told them otherwise. Certainly there was nobody around me and my parents had no clue whatsoever what I was up to. Here, we talk about individuals who are fully aware that lying on credit and loan applications is a criminal offense. Lying in this instance is the exact same as misstating income on a credit card application. And others do get harmed. Entire brokers went under because complete idiots had no idea what they were doing and should have never been equipped with the leverage they were gambling around with. Here we have a broker who does care and instead of giving everyone max leverage attempts to screen people according to their ability to repay potential debit balances. I happen to be a long term IB customer and I don't want any gunslinger who have nothing to bail themselves out should they fuck up a trade badly. Why? Because I don't want to bail them out. It does affect others not just the lying individual. That's what I take issue with.
Trading is a business and business is rarely ethical. Most of it is about what you can get away with. I don't like it but that is the reality.
Pretty much everyone knew it was illegal. The joke of it was that they charged the same whether the average monthly income in the country was $5000 or $50. That created the whole pirating industry in many places, the originals were just completely out of reach for the 99%.
Yup if someone believes 100% something is illegal, what does price have to do with? No one speeds while driving, no one stretches numbers on their tax return, everyone in prison is innocent and other assorted ........... lies we all tell.
I am aware of reality, I just think that this is an instance of crossing a line where OP might actually get himself into trouble down the line. Freezing of his assets or closure of his account, if found out to be lying in the recommended way , could be the mildest consequences. I don't believe in an ideal world but I aim for one as much as I can.
I agree re pricing. But I don't think most kids were aware of what they were doing. In many countries low life lawyers chased after those kids to extract a few hundreds of dollars from the parents and in most cases the families were shocked that something illegal took place under their roof.