[MicroBob]

'Ethical' does not necessarily equal 'providing something to society'.





Drug dealers, prostitutes, hit-men and bet-collectors who threaten to break your thumbs if you don't pay up the $5k you owe for taking the Knicks at +6.5 actually 'provide' something to society....but that doesn't make their jobs ethical.


Defense lawyers are necessary for our legal system. But some of the better ones are REALLY good at getting rapist-murders off on some technicality.
They are obligated to provide the best defense they can...but that doesn't mean they feel good about
successfully keeping the rapist-murderer out of jail.
Ethical is a fine-line here.



Poker is something that i enjoy making my living at.

But i don't pretend that I am actually contributing anything to society by 'providing entertainment' or 'helping the casinos keep their games going' or whatever.

I don't think there is anything terribly unethical about it though. But I do it because I'm decent at it and I enjoy it.
I certainly don't do it with the mind-set of "There's a game somewhere online right now that needs players....and I'm JUST the person to help keep that going. See....I'm providing all this great entertainment value for all the other players who were waiting for me. Aren't I a good samarian??"
That would be ridiculous obviously.

If I could do something more significant and/or helpful to society AND make a reasonable income doing it then I would consider it.

In fact....that is the direction I may take if I build my savings significantly from this whole poker thing.


There are many professions where someone is just basically pushing a pencil around in their office all day and isn't contributing a damn thing to society...and while I think it's a waste of the human mind and spirit to do such a job I don't think there is anything inherently unethical about it even though they don't contribute anything either.