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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

The annoying thing is not how much money he makes but how much he annoys people. IMO, it's basically the same thing as short changing people and pocketing that money. A few cents or a few seconds of time is not going to make or break someone but it's still a net drain. Just because your not robbing houses or kidnapping people does not mean it's ok.

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I'm sorry, but what the everloving fuck?

I see these guys every day on the subway. They have absolutely no impact on my life whatsoever, except the one time I chose to buy a bag of M+M's. I'm not sure how you ended up talking about robbing houses and kidnapping people.

ha - seriously..I really don't understand this at all. Why is it ok to go door to door peddling a start-up that will fail 90% of the time, but not ok to sell a candy that will satisfy 100% of the time :)

Why is it when the discussion is about somebody selling candy on the subway certain peoples minds seem to be turning to violent crime, but when you hear about people with unlicensed lemon-aid stands we don't seem to see this?

To put it bluntly, I suspect it has something to do with the demographic people associate both of these (rather identical) businesses.

That's not putting it bluntly.

If you were blunt you would say that people are suggesting that his alternative occupations would have been burglary or drug dealing because he's black, and they are fools. And you would have been right.

That is a tad to blunt for my tastes, but yes. Though I'm trying to allow some room for people unconsciously thinking like this, unintentionally.

I agree, but not in the sense you mean it. The demographic for lemonade stands is little kids, while the demographic most closely associated with trying to earn money in the subway is desperate adults. One of these demographics is drastically more likely to commit violent crime if they can't make money another way.

"Just because your not robbing houses or kidnapping people does not mean it's ok."

Because selling M&Ms on the subway is akin to robbing houses.

Annoying other people is not illegal. Reference the telemarketer I spoke with yesterday.

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