If you throw something away, is it yours?

[color="#cc8899"]Just a simple question. A simple question that has confounded me to no end - people that throw something away, only to get pissed off when someone else takes it. What do you think?

Edit - the main thing you'll see this happen with involves notepassing in grade school. Could theoretically be applied to adoption, but throwing away is a harsh term to use in that situation. More like - you admitted you can't care for the child, is it still right for you to want to be in his/her life. Perfectly reasonable to have differing answers for different scenarios.[/COLOR]

This makes me think of Maplestory.

Kid A thinks its funny to show off his Ilbi by dropping it and quickly looting. Kid B is eyeing Kid A very carefully. Kid A gets a smug look on his face, and drops again, Kid B swoops in and steals the Ilbi. Kid A bawws forever.

IMO the item is no longer yours as soon as you drop it onto the ground. The new owner should not have to give it back. If you care for the item so bad you shouldn't have dropped it at all.

[color="#cc8899"]Just a simple question. A simple question that has confounded me to no end - people that throw something away, only to get pissed off when someone else takes it. What do you think?

Edit - the main thing you'll see this happen with involves notepassing in grade school. Could theoretically be applied to adoption, but throwing away is a harsh term to use in that situation. More like - you admitted you can't care for the child, is it still right for you to want to be in his/her life. Perfectly reasonable to have differing answers for different scenarios.[/COLOR]

Well. If you are looking at the adoption thing, Sometimes the person getting rid of the child isn't just getting rid of it because they don't want it. Sometimes it's if they can take care of it or not, and if they can't they give it up for adoption but still want to be in the kids life. I mean hey. If I was to have a kid now, I don't really know if I could take care of it. Sure I would try, but seriously. A lot of people are having trouble nowadays. So I think adoption is not a child being "thrown away". But that's my own opinion, and probably horribly worded. xd.

Yeah, people who whine that someone else picked up their stuff make me laugh. They only realized what they had once it's gone.

As for adoption, it depends on the situation. If you abandonned the child because you just didn't care about him/her and you literally wished he/she was never born, then I think that person should have way less reasons to still have a certain "ownership", if I should say, over that child. On another side, the child himself has part of the right to either accept to still be partially owned by the parent who abandonned him or to consider not having any bonds anymore. The situation really depends on the context.

If it goes in the trash can or dumpster, it's no longer yours.

Otherwise, yes.

If it's just grade school throwing notes away... Well, if you don't want someone to see something, you obviously shouldn't throw it away where that person might find it. Wait until you're home and put it somewhere where your parents/siblings won't look, like the bathroom trash can or something.

It's the same, to a higher degree, with people getting their identities stolen because they didn't shred mail and such. Yes, it's wrong to use such documents to steal someone's identity. But the victim should have never let that situation happen in the first place... Same for government breaches and such. When a hacker gets into an improperly secured website, I think both the hacker and the website admin are equally to blame, in different ways... The hacker for malevolence, and the admin for negligence. (Although that isn't a "thrown away" situation, it seems similar to me because the information is being put in a public place.)

Although I think it's kind of being a plantain to pick up items someone drop-gamed or dropped to show off, there shouldn't be any community sanctions or anything. It's really hard to "accidentally" drop something in Maple. Same situation in real life... Well, I'd have more contempt for someone who picked up and read a note that was carelessly dropped on the floor, because people can be genuinely klutzes. And if it were something valuable like a wallet or a diamond ring, then yes, that's stealing. Like it's still stealing to rob a house that was left unlocked... even though the owners were careless to leave it so, that doesn't mean it's public property.

Actually, the last situation is making me re-think whether I think taking advantage of someone dropping Ilbis is stealing or not. Hmm. I'll think about it.



Adoption is different to me, and it depends a lot on the terms of the adoption. Traditionally, it was literally like throwing a child away... with closed adoptions, the birth parents give up all rights, including visitation. Nowadays there are more and more open adoptions, where the birth parents get some contact with their child or at least progress reports of a kind. In an open adoption, yes, a birth parent has whatever legal rights the adoption gives them, unless the adoptive parents sue to end the openness if the birth parent is really a deadbeat. In a closed adoption... Well, I feel it's for the adoptive parents to decide if the birth parent can have contact with the child. The adoptive parents should have the final decision about the child's life, since that's what adoption means, of course, unless it is a matter serious enough for the government to step in. (Child abuse, denying education, etc.) If the birth parent knew about such a situation, they have the same right and responsibility as anyone else to report it to the government.

I believe that regardless of the adoption type, a birth parent should have the option of contacting their child when the child is of legal age, and that then it's up to the child whether they want to keep up a relationship or not. That's the same as the rights any consenting human being has to contact another.

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]If you throw it away, don't be butthurt when someone else takes it

Adoption's a bit different though. Some people can't financially support a child, but might still want to be a part of his/her life[/COLOR]

If you throw it away, then it is implied that you don't want it. If you get pissed at somebody for taking something after you intentionally throw it away (which we established meant that you don't want it), then you are an indecisive little b-word.

If you want something from the dump... don't you have to pay for it?

This kind of makes me think that: Once you throw it away, it is the dump's posession.

But meh~

There's a difference between giving something away and throwing something away.

There's a difference between giving something away and throwing something away.

Then is it right to ask someone to return a gift to you? Either way, you are still giving up possession of something, regardless of what the cause.

Then is it right to ask someone to return a gift to you? Either way, you are still giving up possession of something, regardless of what the cause.

I never do that unless there is a damn good reason to do it.

Many children are given away for adoption for perfectly legitimate reasons. I know you could say to take precautions not to have a child in the first place if you know you can't take care of one, but the fact of the matter is there's no way to guarantee one will not get pregnant from intercourse. If one chooses to engage in such a lifestyle, and gets pregnant, what option do they have?

They may either abort the child (not an option for many people; be it morals, religion, or whathaveyou.) or give it up for adoption once born. Many people that face this option are indeed losers/deadbeats, but what of the people who are simply trapped into their circumstances? Do you honestly think a mother who gives up her child because she knows she will never be able to give it a good and happy life should never be able to see it?

I think some people who put their child up for adoption but still want to be in the child's life should be allowed to be in his life. After all, it still is their kid. If you had a kid, but couldn't support it, wouldn't you still want to see it ocasionally? BOCTAOE (if you don't get that, read "Stick to drawing comics, Monkey brain!" by Scott Adams)

If you throw a thing away and you're angry someone picks it up, that is childish and immature.

If you give your child away for adoption that is completely different. Even many mothers that abort their children feel severe regret. If a mother carries the child to term and HAS to give him or her to another family, there will always be the thoughts, how did the child turn out? Does he or she ever think of the natural parents? Would he or she want to meet them? The mother didn't throw away a thing. The child is a part of her.

You threw away something and then someone got it and you're angry means
- that item still have attachments to you
- you're selfish
- one man trash is another man treasure (they can make good usage and you think why didnt I think of that, and promptly get angry with yourself)

Most of the time, people do things when they're emotional. They throw away their photos, gifts etc only to realise that they perhaps should not do that once they have cooled down. I guess we're the devil of our demise. We never seem to be satisfy with our lawn.