Islam is very non-materialistic. Middle Eastern merchants are very
open & honest. since they don't consider the prospect of gouging a few
extra coins from your pocket as worth endangering their soul.
Christianity proposes this same philosophy but far fewer Christians
put it into practice.

Dave wrote:
Interesting observations, Doug. *I find haggling distasteful, but not
immoral.

It's not about haggling, which is a great tradition in most places
other than the US. It's about lying for profit.


.... Apparently you view it as having a moral dimension.

It's not about *my* feelings, Dave.... you made a statement that
conveyed your impression that Middle Eastern bazaar merchants...
possibly Middle Easterners in general.... were greedy & dishonest.
This is not the case. They might be happy to kill you but they would
not rob you.


.... So can I
morally price my boat at any more than I expect to ultimately sell it for?
If so, how much more before I'm "gouging"? *And is that the same premium I
can ask before I endanger my soul? 10%? 30%? 50%? 100%?

Morality is not my department. Just telling you the facts as I have
observed them.

Setting a price on your boat is not the same as accepting X amount of
money for it. Seems unlikely to me, in this current market
environment, that you'll be able to endanger your soul over it

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

wrote in message
...

It's not about *my* feelings, Dave.... you made a statement that
conveyed your impression that Middle Eastern bazaar merchants...
possibly Middle Easterners in general.... were greedy & dishonest.
This is not the case. They might be happy to kill you but they would
not rob you.


Morality is not my department. Just telling you the facts as I have
observed them.

Setting a price on your boat is not the same as accepting X amount of
money for it. Seems unlikely to me, in this current market
environment, that you'll be able to endanger your soul over it

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

One must keep in mind that Capitalism and morality are strangers to each
other.

KLC Lewis wrote:
wrote in message
...

It's not about *my* feelings, Dave.... you made a statement that
conveyed your impression that Middle Eastern bazaar merchants...
possibly Middle Easterners in general.... were greedy & dishonest.
This is not the case. They might be happy to kill you but they would
not rob you.


Morality is not my department. Just telling you the facts as I have
observed them.

Setting a price on your boat is not the same as accepting X amount of
money for it. Seems unlikely to me, in this current market
environment, that you'll be able to endanger your soul over it

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

One must keep in mind that Capitalism and morality are strangers to each
other.

Strangers??? Clearly not. Now, enemies.... :-)

Keith Hughes

wrote in message
...
KLC Lewis wrote:


One must keep in mind that Capitalism and morality are strangers to each
other.

Strangers??? Clearly not. Now, enemies.... :-)

Keith Hughes

I will accept that correction. ;-)

One must keep in mind that Capitalism and morality are strangers to each
other.

Dave wrote:
Nonsense.

Agreed. Capitalism depends on strong morals, especially in the area of
contracts

DSK

wrote in message
...
One must keep in mind that Capitalism and morality are strangers to each
other.

Dave wrote:
Nonsense.

Agreed. Capitalism depends on strong morals, especially in the area of
contracts

DSK


I would argue that Capitalism depends only upon strong enforcement of laws,
regardless of morality. A perfectly legal transaction or contract can be
utterly immoral. I'm sure you can come up with your own examples of such, if
you think about it.

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:46:49 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Agreed. Capitalism depends on strong morals, especially in the area of
contracts

My uncle the law school dean at Kansas U, told me that if a man's word
is no good, neither is his contract. Also said a verbal contract is
worth the paper it is written on.

Casady

On 28 Nov 2008 19:08:02 -0600, Dave wrote:

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:13:33 GMT, (Richard
Casady) said:

My uncle the law school dean at Kansas U, told me that if a man's word
is no good, neither is his contract. Also said a verbal contract is
worth the paper it is written on.

All contracts are verbal. I assume he meant an oral contract.

Interesting nit-pick. But current usage allows verbal to mean oral
among several other meanings. (COD)
So it's an academic distinction.

Brian W

Dave wrote:
Umm....I don't think so. You seem to be reading in something that's not
there.

OK, sorry.

My posts were about concealing facts, or outright misrepresentation,
to obtain a greater price from a buyer.

.... When I referred to the "psychological profile" I was speaking of the
profile of someone who gets his jollies from haggling, and the from relating
how he got the better of the party on the other side in a bargaining
session. We've occasionally seen the type here.

Why wouldn't we? The "set price" neurosis seems not to exist in most
of the world, whereas in the US many people seem to think it's totally
natural.

DSK