The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Andrew Dalke]

Robin Becker wrote:
>I don't think the pessimists amongst whom I count myself reject altruism
>totally. A purely altruistic action has benefit for others and none for
>the actor. Very few of the altruistic examples in the thread come close.


The one I came up with, the first time I heard this argument (freshman
year of college, I think), was the following:

  I'm walking down the street and there is a hole in my front
pocket.  I keep money in that pocket.  I have a hand in that pocket
because it's cold, and I'm jostling the money.  As I pass a beggar,
some money falls out through the hole.  It is altruistic or an
accident?
  The only way to find out is to ask me, and I can lie, so
there's no observational way to tell the difference.  Thus, I
considered the definition of "altruistic", when used in this
extreme case, to be useless.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at acm.org