

Ask HN: Why is it wrong to steal?  - throwawaypink

I have been wondering / struggling with this for a while now. I more often than not have enough for myself, and any dependents, however I find myself stealing from X, (X = shops, mom and pop store, chain stores, offices, friends' houses). The things that I pick up are more often than not objects that catch my fancy for a while, and sometimes it is just to feed the rush to steal something. I understand that it is not socially accepted behavior, and there are various religious/moral arguments against this. I got suspended from my high school for something similar, and went in for counseling. I have been diagnosed with Kleptomania, and talked with the lady more about it, but she wasn't able to give a definitive answer about why it was wrong, beyond the fact that it wasn't accepted by society and some other obscure reasons.<p>I tried looking up stuff on the internet, and well it wasn't really clear to me. I know that reddit or quora might be a better forum for this kind of a question, but HN is the only forum that I use, and so this is most convenient for me. So I am struggling to answer why this might be wrong ?
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dkokelley
Property rights extend from the benefit of society as a whole. If you accept
this, all that follows will make sense. A farmer produces apples because he
hopes to sell them in a net-positive value transaction. The buyer gains an
apple, and the seller receives cash to trade for whatever he needs. Both
parties are better off. If all parties in a society behave similarly with
their produced goods, the net benefit is positive utility.

If stealing were acceptable behavior, the farmer would have no incentive to
produce apples, or he would only produce apples for himself, and devote more
of his resources into protecting and defending the apples he invested in
producing. Investing time in protecting the apples by building a wall is a
waste of a resource, because he could have instead grown more apples.
Producing only enough for himself is also wasteful because eventually the
farmer will be sick of apples (diminishing marginal utility) and it is
impractical for the farmer to create EVERYTHING he needs on his own (economies
of scale, learning efficiencies, and opportunity costs all cause this).

When you steal, you are influencing this entire ecosystem of producers and
consumers. Although your actions may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of
things, if everybody were to behave the same way, our society could not
survive as it is. Ethically, this is can be seen as a utilitarian issue. Who
benefits the most from your actions? You obviously benefit, but are there
other actions where more parties could benefit, or the net benefit could be
greater? If there are, then under this model stealing is unethical. One could
argue that stealing is ethically OK if the benefit you get from stealing (the
use of the object plus the rush you feel) is greater than A: the loss by the
owner, and B: the total utility that could have been had by a standard
transaction between a buyer and seller. In fact, this is why people typically
don't feel as bad for extremely poor people who steal to feed their family.
Sure, the baker might be out a few loaves of bread, but the thieve's family
gets to eat a warm meal. Is the warm meal worth more than the bakers loss?

Get help. Regardless of how you decide to rationalize your behavior, society
will condemn your actions, and you will be punished. Learn to deal with your
impulses.

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dnautics
Well, it depends on your theory of property, but basically stealing violates
the principle of property rights.

The theory of property that I happen to subscribe to is based on the tragedy
of the commons. Imagine if there were no property rights and you could
appropriate anyone's property for your own use. Then there would be no
motivation to produce, because the fruits of your labor could be taken by
anyone else. What you did produce- you would be inclined to consume what you
produced as soon as you produced it... The global effects of that sort of a
society on, say, the environment would not be so good.

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memetichazard
Why is anything wrong? Perhaps the simplest form of morality is that of the
Golden Rule.

Thus, how would you feel if you were stolen from? If something of yours went
missing? It might be anything from a small little toy to a family heirloom.
It's not just the physical loss that matters, but also potential emotional
loss and further damages.

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sushrutbidwai
From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantaram_(novel)> -

What is good and what is evil? When wondering whether a particular act is sin
or not, ask yourself a question - what will happen if everyone does that? Will
the universe move towards God or it will move backwards?

