Serious question, why is stealing considered "wrong"?

In My Humble Opinion
61

I can’t be bothered to look it up, but is this the same guy who was asking about how to make a lot of money with little to no work?

If that’s the case, then I seriously think you need to adjust your attitude of entitlement.
The answer to your question as to why “stealing is wrong” is that since basically the dawn of human civilization, people have recognized that in order to survive, people need a way to organize their labor and distribute the fruits of that labor. We’ve come up with a number of different systems (free markets, regulated markets, communism, socialism, lottery, rationing, barter, Uber, pot-luck, so on and so forth), but all these systems are incumbent on an inherent belief that the results of your labor entitle you to a share of the spoils. And you are entitled to trade your share with others in order to obtain the things you want and need.

IOW, I work hard so I can afford the things I like. You don’t want to work as hard, don’t expect the same standard of living as me.

62

I understand both points.

I have also worked hard and I do try to have some nice things.

However, this working hard has also been hard on my body physically and it is becoming more difficult to enjoy these nicer things

Yes, I have had things stolen from me and yes it makes one feel vulnerable when it happens.

However, I do see the point that stealing a loaf of bread being insignificant in terms of cost.

Then it becomes a slippery slope in evaluating the relative value of the stolen item

63

Another point, that has not really been made is the cost of stealing one’s time.

That is something that is not really taken into account when there is a theft. That is often more valuable than the item stolen

64

Yes.

I think he will be disillusioned about how difficult it can be to profit from theft. As noted upthread, after you steal it (other than cash, which not too many folks have lying around in large quantity these days) you’ll have to sell it to profit. That sounds like work!

65

Yup. Also the guy complaining about how girls won’t go out with him.

The entitlement is strong in this one.

66

Don’t you think others work hard, too, to earn the things that get stolen from them?

67

Understand that completely.

However, the point that I was trying to make is that often a person’s time is something that can be stolen as well.

68

Money, from a philosophical standpoint, is a measure of how much good people have done for others, in our economy.

When I go to work, I’m not making things for myself. I’m making things for other people, things that help them, heal them, make them happy, or feel more secure. Likewise, all of those people are doing the same thing. Every day, they go in to work and make things to help everyone else.

If you pictured us as a small village, money is like good will. If I’m the guy in town who knows how to fix appliances, I would go around fixing everyone’s appliances, and because it’s a small town, everyone would be happy with me. When I needed a cake baked, the cake baker - whose washing machine I fixed - would happily bake me a cake. If I needed a need pair of pants, the tailor would make me some pants.

But, at the point where I ask the mechanic to build me a car - from scratch - the total work of which would take thousands of hours for a lone man to accomplish, the fact that I fixed his lawn mower a few years back really doesn’t cut it. If I were the mechanic, I’d save that sort of work for the doctor, who saved my kid from imminent death or something, not just any other person who’s done a few helpful things for me. After all, for the whole time that the mechanic is making the one car, he’ll have to ignore and not help out anyone else in town. That’s not good for the town and who is going to give the mechanic food for all that time? It’s not reasonable for people to support the mechanic, while he makes a car for one guy.

In that sort of world, where people keep track of how much good will they personally have with someone, it’s impossible for big things to get done. If I really wanted a car, for whatever reason, I’d have to gather everyone in town and do a deal where I say, “I’ll fix appliances for all of you, for the rest of time, asking nothing in return, if you treat the mechanic like he was me and give him pants and cakes and stuff, as though he had done the work for you that I had done.” That’s rather unwieldy.

Money allows you to accomplish that, without having to get everyone together and hammer out details. If I do small jobs for a thousand people, I can get a thousand small rewards. Though each reward may be small, when added up, it might equal a lot. So then I can take that large wad o’ cash to the mechanic, he’ll gladly take it. He can work on my car while trading the work I did with others, without their having to know where he got that money from. They can assume that he did an equivalent or greater favor for someone and thus they’re willing to do a favor for him.

As said, money is just a measure of how much good will you’ve done in your life. And, since everything one possesses (these days) is bought for money, your personal possessions are also a measure of how much good you have done in your life.

So now if you do no good in your life, and instead just steal things from people, then in what way is that good? Good is, by definition, doing things for others. Not doing things for others and then demanding or taking things from them is, by definition, bad.

When people buy things, they’re trading that money against everything else they could have used it for. If I buy a painting, I’m not buying food. I need food to not die, so I have to buy food. That’s always priority one. So to get that painting, I have to have chosen that it was worth it to me to get out there and do the extra work so that I can justify doing something that’s dangerous to my survival, when I trade away my money for something that I can’t eat. But I might do it because that’s just what it takes for me to be happy and satisfied in life. Maybe I just can’t abide by the idea of living a life with nothing beautiful to look at.

Now, if you take that painting, you’re removing something that I traded my survival for. You’re removing something that I wanted for my own mental health and life satisfaction. Sure, maybe you don’t think that a painting is worthwhile, or that it’s worth working hard so that you can buy a Porsche, but we’re not all the same person. What has value to you and what has value to me aren’t the same thing. You have to trust that, if I forked out money for something, it’s something that has value to me. And if you take that from me, you’re lowering the quality of my life.

By thieving, not only are you doing no good for the world, you’re (however small or large it might be) actively hurting others.

69

One of the things that puzzles me about the OP is the idea that “high income” people can be robbed, and it’s ok.

Thing is, it’s all relative. To some family of four where only one parent works for minimum wage, I’m sure I look like that “high income” person. But to me, I see some guy who makes seven figures as “high income”. That 7 figure guy sees someone like Ross Perot or T. Boone Pickens.

Is it ok for a guy making a million a year to go steal shit from a guy making 50 million a year? After all, he makes 50x what the million/yr guy makes. By contrast, I only make something like 4-5x what the minimum wage guy makes. Would it be ok for me to steal from the guy making a million a year? He makes over 10x what I make.

The thing seems to boil down to sour grapes about “Rich people have nice stuff, and I don’t, therefore I’m entitled to steal it from them”, not some kind of deep philosophical question about the nature of wealth distribution in society.

70

Basically there’s no moral argument that can justify theft. Even the OP’s argument boils down to “That person has something I don’t have. So I’m taking it.” But even that argument fails - once you’ve taken the item, you no longer have the “right” to own it. All you’ve done is become the person who now has something that somebody else doesn’t have.

71

If you take one, be sure to leave him in a hotel room bathtub with plenty of ice