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Without knowing them, this seems exactly like the behavior of someone who thinks they can steal from others (mall owners) because those people are “in the wrong

Without knowing them, this seems exactly like the behavior of someone who thinks they can steal from others (mall owners) because those people are “in the wrong” (soulless capitalists). And yes, unless they were running their own generator somehow, which the article doesn’t seem to imply, they were stealing

bigyabai 1y ago
It sounds like they succeeded. If they can exploit a company's resources to their express advantage while not being a large enough problem to deal with, then capitalism is at a net loss. Getting the system to work against these types means investing in after-hours mall security, or getting investors to care about your hostile takeover situation. If the responsible individuals can't be assed to find a solution, then yeah, tough luck. The mall is theirs, the company is theirs too. I applaud this kind of creative individualism. It should scare the people who think they're entitled to private property even when someone smarter comes along to whistle their same tune.
- subjectsigma 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    You just quoted an article you can't link, casually citing conclusions you cannot prove. And I'm the socially dysfunctional one for not observing the unwritten rules of strip mall etiquette. If the little rat fools the big rat into losing, they still lost. In business, in resource competition and in legal proceedings too.
  - tomhow 1y ago
    > You are less socially developed than a rat. Please edit swipes out of comments. It's one of the first and most important things we ask for in the Comments section of the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Planktonne 1y ago
  Agreed. One of the claimed selling points of capitalism is that it leads to the efficient allocation of resources; this demonstrates a failure of that.
DrewADesign 1y ago
The movie contains a lot of backstory that describes who they are, the economic forces in Providence at the time, and what lead them to do this. You could speculate, automatically snapping to the least charitable assumptions, or you could actually watch it and find out. (Everything in the apartment was purchased, and they anonymously gave money to the mall management every month by slipping an envelope of cash under the office door saying "thanks for the utilities.")
- te 1y ago
  Really interested in seeing this movie, but lol at the thought that the owners of the mall ever saw a single cent from envelopes of cash stuffed under an office door.
  - ccppurcell 1y ago
    Ok but then who is stealing?
- doctorpangloss 1y ago
  Yeah. Sure. Let me know how your wife will feel if someone was living in your crawl space as an art project, “slipping an envelope of cash” under your door every month.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - palmotea 1y ago
    > Yeah. Sure. Let me know how your wife will feel if someone was living in your crawl space as an art project, “slipping an envelope of cash” under your door every month. No. That's apples and oranges, especially when you're talking about feelings. "Your crawl space" is part of a very intimate and personal space: your home. This space (a void of the type where construction workers don't clean up their trash) was part of a impersonal and pseudo-public space: a shopping mall. Your analogy doesn't hold up.
ghushn3 1y ago
It's only stealing from someone if you recognize that person as being the owner of the thing. If you are someone who does not believe in private property (note, this is different from personal property), then you haven't stolen anything at all. I'm not saying I agree with that position, I'm saying that's a position that is at least internally consistent (if at odds with our current legal framework.)

bigyabai 1y ago

It sounds like they succeeded. If they can exploit a company's resources to their express advantage while not being a large enough problem to deal with, then capitalism is at a net loss. Getting the system to work against these types means investing in after-hours mall security, or getting investors to care about your hostile takeover situation. If the responsible individuals can't be assed to find a solution, then yeah, tough luck. The mall is theirs, the company is theirs too. I applaud this kind of creative individualism. It should scare the people who think they're entitled to private property even when someone smarter comes along to whistle their same tune.

subjectsigma 1y ago
[flagged]
- bigyabai 1y ago
  You just quoted an article you can't link, casually citing conclusions you cannot prove. And I'm the socially dysfunctional one for not observing the unwritten rules of strip mall etiquette. If the little rat fools the big rat into losing, they still lost. In business, in resource competition and in legal proceedings too.
- tomhow 1y ago
  > You are less socially developed than a rat. Please edit swipes out of comments. It's one of the first and most important things we ask for in the Comments section of the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Planktonne 1y ago
Agreed. One of the claimed selling points of capitalism is that it leads to the efficient allocation of resources; this demonstrates a failure of that.

DrewADesign 1y ago

The movie contains a lot of backstory that describes who they are, the economic forces in Providence at the time, and what lead them to do this. You could speculate, automatically snapping to the least charitable assumptions, or you could actually watch it and find out. (Everything in the apartment was purchased, and they anonymously gave money to the mall management every month by slipping an envelope of cash under the office door saying "thanks for the utilities.")

te 1y ago
Really interested in seeing this movie, but lol at the thought that the owners of the mall ever saw a single cent from envelopes of cash stuffed under an office door.
- ccppurcell 1y ago
  Ok but then who is stealing?
doctorpangloss 1y ago
Yeah. Sure. Let me know how your wife will feel if someone was living in your crawl space as an art project, “slipping an envelope of cash” under your door every month.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- palmotea 1y ago
  > Yeah. Sure. Let me know how your wife will feel if someone was living in your crawl space as an art project, “slipping an envelope of cash” under your door every month. No. That's apples and oranges, especially when you're talking about feelings. "Your crawl space" is part of a very intimate and personal space: your home. This space (a void of the type where construction workers don't clean up their trash) was part of a impersonal and pseudo-public space: a shopping mall. Your analogy doesn't hold up.

ghushn3 1y ago

It's only stealing from someone if you recognize that person as being the owner of the thing. If you are someone who does not believe in private property (note, this is different from personal property), then you haven't stolen anything at all. I'm not saying I agree with that position, I'm saying that's a position that is at least internally consistent (if at odds with our current legal framework.)