> The point was that, in my experience, the people in these environments that engage in this sort of act typically do so because they believe their individual situation justifies the action despite the effects it will have on someone else's ability to perform their function.

Yes, and we have a word for people who think that their needs outweigh those of others: selfish.

> That assumes that the selfish action is inherently "bad" or "negative" and that it's being done in a vacuum.

I don't even know what this means. Being selfish is bad and negative, yes.

> Sure, the worker taking the RAM is benefiting at the expense of the other workers time but you can imagine any number of scenarios where the benefit/cost of the act are greatly outweighed by the overall importance of the outcome that the act produced.

I can imagine them. I don't think they're particularly likely compared to someone being selfish, because there are many selfish people in the world, and almost no circumstances where getting more RAM immediately by stealing it from someone else is warranted.