Shoplifting surges 30% in England and Wales, official data shows
Shoplifting surges 30% in England and Wales, official data shows
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Poverty breeds criminals, reduce poverty reduce petty thefts
No, it doesn't. Look at the contents of the British museum and tell me, by dollar amount, who the biggest thieves are there. It's not the poor.
In the US, the biggest source of theft is time card theft from employers, followed closely by asset forfeiture (cops stealing). Poverty doesn't breed immorality, that's some classist bullshit.
Yeah that's ideologically creamy and everything but the rising cost of food has definitely led to me stealing it. I just don't happen to think it's immoral. If I see a food item I regularly consume literally double in price, at that point it's the seller being immoral. These kind of price hikes have become a regular occurrence, as well as the removal of budget versions of products from the shelves.
What if you suddenly got poorer though? Say if you became homeless and it was somewhat visible you were poor? I bet you wouldn't steal then, because you'd know you'd get caught - people hate the poor and homeless and associate them with morality and would assume you'd steal.
That you steal food is understandable but not a given. Some people go to food banks instead. Some grow food. Some beg with signs instead of steal. Some qualify for food stamps. Theft is usually a rich to middle class thing because they can weather the consequences better. Most poor people do not steal material goods like that from stores because they already know how to be poor and live on nothing without resorting to thievery (or else they are already incarcerated).
No, I'm very poor. I've been homeless, I've used food banks and I literally used to run a vegetable farm, so it's very funny you would suggest I grow food.
So why resort to stealing now? Because you're angry at the stores now for inflation, so you want to punish them? That's different than being poor. Being poor doesn't make a person automatically antisocial, immoral, or more likely to harm another and to say otherwise is propaganda or an excuse to be antisocial. If you want to harm corporations in revenge, say that and stop hiding behind tired classist propaganda.
It's literally because I'm poor.
Okay, that can be what you attribute it to, but you're in the minority and the vast majority of poor people, both in rich countries and globally, are pro-social and don't steal.
Just like you might set fires because you're stressed, but plenty of stressed people don't set fires. Or you might serial kill because you had a bad upbringing, yet majority of people don't serial kill even if they had a bad childhood. In fact, most people who suffer abuse, tend to UNDO and prevent that same abuse happening to others. So if you're poor, you tend to not want to hurt others financially either. The poor understand the actual value of a meal and a dollar.
So whatever reason you give yourself to abuse or be antisocial, is simply an excuse and not a cause.
And this is at the true schism of leftist rhetoric and true non-violence: when is violence acceptable? When is being antisocial acceptable? I don't have the answers. I can understand why someone responds to violence with violence, yet I think it only makes things worse.
I disagree. Cheers!
I'm not talking about that theft but petty theft (under $1000)
You are right though, there are much worse theives out there
In the US, petty theft can be accrued into 1 charge until it's a felony. Eg you shoplift at Target 10 times over a few years, even at separate Targets, and as soon as you total over the threshold for a felony they will charge you. And again, with inflation, that threshold gets smaller every year.
America, the land of the free ^to do what you are told^
Man that’s some boogie opinion. Ofc rich people steal and they steal much larger amounts but in my poor ass neighborhood my friend got his shoes stolen and me my bike. In the hallway. By my neighbor who repainted it and just kept it there. And once I got even fucking candy stolen out of my hand. Poor people totally shit on each other and take what they can.
OTOH I don’t consider it immoral to steal from e.g. a supermarket, I couldn’t care less that the profit margin of some conglomerate decreases.
And the majority of visible homeless I know don't steal despite being worse off. It's not bougie, it's fighting stupid propaganda claiming poor people are immoral.