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> If you think every hungry person is a thief, and the rich don't have a motive to steal

Please don't strawman my posts, especially when I've posted this[1] not more than a day ago.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29961052




Sorry of that came off as a straw man, I was trying to cut to what I saw as the core of your position, i.e. "the deprivation of resources that causes most of it" (theft).

Theft, like all of human behavior has many causes. You can look at what differentiates thieves from the working poor with similar lack of resources to determine some of the causes. Alternatively, you can look at what is in common between rich and poor thieves.

I have known far too many honest and hard-working poor people to believe that a lack of resources constitutes either a necessary or sufficient cause of theft.

If your primary point was that a hungry person will steal to feed themselves, I agree but don't think it is relevant to the social problem at hand.

If you were to ask me, I would say that people steal when they have little to lose, including integrity and empathy for their victims.




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