"It is easy to ask for other people’s money to be spent to support causes you support—but is it moral? Also, such short cuts to nobility are often hypocritical..." Nadira is of the theatre establishment; you are currently of the IPNBastiat's. None is less hypocritical.We all want to cut a deal. Nadira's main cause is theatre - she gets insignificant amount of income from it - she mentions that frequently - she earns her living from other sources -so she thinks it is right to ask for G's money to get an auditorium. It might not have entered her mind properly that the G's money is ours. Your main cause is blogging - you get insignificant amount of income from it - you mention that frequently - you earn your living from other sources - so you think it is right to ask for your readers' votes to get a blog's award. It might not have struck you that the vote is an emotional substitute for public dosh. Well, we can again argue - Nobody is forcing us to vote? But again, for argument's sake - the biggest consumption by educated people - Is emotional persuasion more moral than asking for money? We might be able to use the auditorium. Can we use your award? The IPN has the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation as one of its partners. RGF has our money. With your Bastiat prize, will it be wrong on our part to assume you have also taken our money through a circuitous route - however small the amount is? And to quote Guido Fawkes "IPN's main financial backer is the Pfizer pharmaceutical corporation, which is the world's biggest funder of lobbying to strengthen patent regimes globally. Do they know that Bastiat opposed patents as an economic absurdity?" We all think others owe a debt to us. We look for exchanges. What is significantly moral here? Nothing. Not even mentioning maid, chaprassis, flower-girl. We are at our liberty to ask or persuade anything we want. Bastiat's quotes are easy to come by but let's suggest some ideas. Like when filing tax returns - we should be given choices of areas of tax investment. If that idea has been mentioned already, I would love to have balloons on the roads. So my tax should go to buying balloons, not subway frescoes. The hard-earned money of our maid, chaprassis, flower-girl will be saved.They can choose buckets or buses. Imagine a day when a common man like you decides to fight the G full-on - pillar to post - for what he believes in. We will support. Else, its all borrowed talk, talk, talk - we are all Barry Champlains, Nadira included. We all want to stand on the pulpit. Nothing is immoral with borrowed talk or pulpit-access. We all do that; all of us can't be collectively immoral. Is it?