Murder and self-defense are the same behavior with different motivations. Not to draw any parallel between the two situations, just to point out that intent matters.
Okay, the exact same behavior in the exact same situation - which I don’t see applying in the murder/self defense scenario. The point is, some here are saying it’s okay leave his heat off if he likes it cold, but it’s not okay to leave it off if he likes it warm.
It’s like saying if someone propositions you, whether it’s okay or not to go ahead and have sex with them depends upon whether you want to or not. Given identical behavior/identical situation, I say that whether it’s okay or not depends upon the behavior and the situation, but not upon whether you want to.
Sometimes when I drive through Baltimore, if someone is running into a building/house, they’ll park their car in a travel lane. This inconveniences a great many cars and drivers who need to form a single lane to get around them. It’s very beneficial to the person who is leaving their car in the lane instead of finding a garage, or a parking space and walking a few blocks.
Do the people who think the condo-dweller’s actions are fine think that the driver’s actions in the above scenario are fine?
I think that he should set his thermostat to what he thinks is a comfortable temperature for himself.
If his apartment is insulated enough so that his heating never comes on, then so be it. That’s one of the benefits of living in a place like that.
But, make no mistake. . .if his apartment is warmer than it would otherwise be because of bleed-through from his neighbors, then he is “stealing heat” from his neighbors. By keeping his apartment “cold”, he is forcing his neighbors to use more heat than they would otherwise need.
Is this putting a knife to a guy’s ribs and demanding his wallet? No. It’s not even in the same ballpark. But, we all could make decisions each day that benefit ourselves at the expense of “society”. Most of us choose not to.
Parking your car in a travel lane is illegal. Not heating your condo is not. If you like it cool, so be it. It’s not your problem.
In a homeless shelter we manage, one person had the heat on 90 and the wndows opened in January. Yes, we pay the heating bill. When she was asked about it, her defense was “I was airing out the place.” Not a blasted thing we could do about it.
I think it’s absurd to consider passive behavior like this as stealing, regardless of his motivation.
We have neighbors in our backyard. There was a second house built on the lot. At night, they have porch lights that keep the backyard lit enough to see if you’re coming and going by way of our back door (which we frequently do). We have a rear porch light that we rarely use. Are we stealing from our neighbors because we use their light? If we turned ours on, they could turn some of theirs off and have a cheaper bill?
One time, my neighbor was playing music loud enough that I could hear it. Usually, that’s annoying, but I liked the song. I could have gone to iTunes and downloaded it, but I just opened the window so I could hear it better. Was I stealing their music?
There’s always going to be some leakage when energy use is involved. But the people paying in the first place have determined that it’s worth it, even when some of the energy is wasted. If someone discovers that he can put the otherwise wasted energy to use, it’s not stealing, it’s efficiency.
Trunk, I don’t understand how your analogy has anything to do with the above scenario. Illegal parking that seriously disrupts the flow of traffic is not even remotely related to keeping one’s thermostat low to save money.
I walk to work (partly) to save money on gas. Inevitably, as a pedestrian, I delay cars, since I have the right of way to cross streets, and they’re required to stop. If I drove, I’d cause less of a delay, since I would have to wait for an opening. Am I stealing from the drivers in my neighborhood?
This thread made me curious: suppose you live in a building that has certain insect inhabitants-would turning down your heat encourage the vermin to move into the better-heated units? Would this be the case for bedbugs? Another thing; leaving your heat too low migh cause certain water pipes to freeze and burst-and YOU might very well be liable for the damage caused by water leaks! 
I don’t see how it’s stealing at all. It’s a decision to sacrifice some amount of personal comfort to save some amount of money. If it gets too cold, I assume he’ll turn the thermostat up.
If he doesn’t turn his own thermostat up, but instead sneaks into the downstairs neighbor’s condo and turns their thermostat up, then he’s stealing.
The point is that we all make choices each day where behaving selfishly could benefit us at a minor expense to those around us. Double parking is like that.
Maybe a more appropriate example. . .let’s say you’re on a road with two lanes in your direction. The light ahead of you is red. A person is allowed to go right on red from the right hand lane.
You’re in the left lane behind a single car. You look in the rear view mirror, and see a guy behind you with his right blinker on. Because you don’t want to be behind a car at the light, you pull into the right hand lane, forcing the guy behind you to wait to turn right whereas otherwise, he could have turned right during the red light.
Constrast that to the case where there’s no one behind you, so you pull into the right hand, and then a guy you couldn’t previously see comes up behind you and has to wait.
Did you behave ethically in both those scenarios?
Or to put GaryT’s question another way. . .
In one case, the condo owner is saying, “I want my place warm, but I want my neighbors to pay for it.”
In one case, he’s saying, “I want my place cold and it’s too bad that my neighbor’s are warming my place up”.
We’re judging the ethics of that person making that decision. You can’t say that those two statements are equivalent.
Intent is everything.
You may want to make an ethical judgment of someone whose actions are selfish or inconsiderate, but it’s still not the same as stealing.
Stealing is taking that which is not rightfully yours. This fellow isn’t taking anything.
Exactly where do you live that it gets down to -40°C/-40°F in the winter time? Antarctica?
It’s somewhat unethical, but I doubt this bothers your friend.
Yes. The fact that you could, if you felt like it, be slightly more accomodating to others does not make failure to do so unethical.
When I’m walking to work, I could wait until there’s a big enough gap in the cars that I could cross the street without anyone stopping. But I don’t. I have the right of way, and I take it. Similarly, there’s nothing wrong with changing lanes into an empty lane. And the fact that you can predict a slight inconvenience based on your reasonable and legal actions doesn’t make it so.
Even if it is slightly unethical, it’s far from stealing.
My downstairs neighbor wouldn’t turn his heat on all winter, as in completely off, and now my power bill is $1500 just from trying to keep the place around 15℃ To keep any water pipes from freezing. I live in nova Scotia, Canada by the way and this was one of the coldest winter’s we’ve had in a few years. Is there anything I can do about this other then putting in more insulation as that would be about another $500.
richyt52, welcome to The Straight Dope Message Boards. Given the age of this thread, it would be preferable for you to start your own thread asking this question – you’re more likely to get responses, as well, since people won’t have to wade through this one to get to what you’re after.
I’m closing this one.