In the emergency case, the result of everyone thinking that way is that more people survive, which is a good thing.

In the cable tv stealing example the result of everyone thinking that way would be that no one would have cable, which would be a bad thing.


This is why the two examples are not equal and the one can't be used to justify the other.

Theft is still theft and both illegal and wrong.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.