&gt; The ethics and morality of giving is kind of complicated.<p>No, it&#x27;s really quite simple.  It&#x27;s the ethics and morality (and circuitous justification) of being upset by others giving that&#x27;s complicated.<p>I built a friend of a friend a billing system for his fledgling business.  Didn&#x27;t charge a dime.  I even got sucked in to support for much longer than I really wanted, since no good deed goes unpunished.  Was it unethical of me to undercut the other people who might have wanted to provide those services for money?<p>I did some free consulting last week.  A friend is starting a company and hasn&#x27;t hired devs yet, so I met him for a half day and we worked on system architecture.  I told him ahead of time that I was happy to do it for free.  He had the money to pay a consultant, but every bit he saves now extends his runway.  He bought me a beer.  Unethical?<p>Last year my water heater failed catastrophically and dumped its water all over the floor.   I went to my next door neighbor and said, &quot;hey, is there a plumber you recommend around here?&quot; and his response was &quot;don&#x27;t waste your money on a plumber.  That&#x27;s an easy job, and I can help.  Let&#x27;s go to Home Depot.&quot;  He spent the whole day helping me.  Literally took a paying job that I was planning to pay a plumber to do.  Should plumbers be upset about their work being devalued?