4 ms·
What's the expected value of: 90% chance of being a hungry person who steals a steak instead of dying 10% chance of being someone with 100 steaks and having 9
by direwolf20 9mo ago
What's the expected value of:
90% chance of being a hungry person who steals a steak instead of dying
10% chance of being someone with 100 steaks and having 9 stolen?
I think the EV of this ends up positive.
- ifyoubuildit 9mo agoI didn't take being barely able to afford ramen as someone who is going to starve to death. Their health is probably pretty poor, but I was assuming like in real life there would be other options. Like I said before, if the alternative is death, then obviously stealing is justified. But if the alternative is the soup kitchen or something, then I can't justify stealing the steak. Otherwise you're on a slippery slope.
- direwolf20 8mo agoThe guy with a hundred steaks still won't notice them gone. Probably. The slope stops when the expected value is zero.
- ifyoubuildit 8mo agoIs it only ok for luxury items? What happens when you swap steaks out of that sentence? You have a hundred (dollars|pens|shoes|boxes of cereal), you probably won't notice if I take one. I don't feel right taking one if I have other options. Whether or not someone notices doesn't make theft OK, it just means you get away without consequences (depending on your religious beliefs). Not to mention you probably have to trespass/break and enter to do it.