Information Related to "A Moral Dilemma?"
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Every now and then I listen to a radio program here in Australia that features a segment called "Moral Dilemma." A listener calls or writes to the station and explains the difficult situation he or she is in, and other listeners contact the station with advice on what the person should do.
In yesterday's dilemma, "John" explained that he had bought a base model BMW, made several modifications to it that gave it the appearance of a much more luxurious model, and then traded it in. The car dealer had evidently not inspected the car very closely, and offered him $90,000. John knew its value was more like $30,000, and wondered what he should do.
The two announcers, Tracey and Tim, discussed John's dilemma together first.
"Ooooh," said Tim. "This is a verrrrrrrrry tricky one."
"It is not," Tracey retorted. "It's cut-and-dried. He can't take the money."
"But—" said Tim.
"But what? You've got to be honest with yourself, and you've got to be able to live with yourself."
"But come on, Trace," Tim countered. "Used car dealers. Everyone knows what they're like."
"That doesn't matter," said Tracey. "What goes around comes around. It's the law of karma."
"But how do you know that this isn't the car dealer's bad karma coming back to get him?"
Tracey and Tim then asked their listeners to call or SMS [i.e., text message] the station with their views on what John should do. About 80 percent thought he should take advantage of the car dealer's mistake, usually on the basis that doing something dishonest to a dishonest person was okay. This included an ex–used car dealer who vouched for the corruption of the industry and strongly advised John to "take the money and run."
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