Stealing From A Large Corporation is Just as Bad as Stealing From a Small Business, amirite?

Shop local Shopift corporate

by Daviscaleb 2 days ago

From a sort of Kantian categorical imperative perspective, yeah. From a more consequentialist approach, then obviously no. The motivation of the thief is nearly the same though. They want something. They feel entitled to it. They can't/won't pay for it and take it.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Kant also lived in pre-multinational globalist conglomerate times, so I'm not sure if it's fair to apply the categorical imperative to this.

by Agitated-Parfait-832 2 days ago

He'd still say that stealing from Walmart was wrong no matter how mean you think they are. You don't have to agree with the categorical imperative in the first place. But the point of it was try to create a rigid, consistent system for determining right and wrong. He's not just saying, "imagine if everyone stole. Wouldn't that be bad?" That's just part of it. His idea was that if you come up with a contradiction, that's unacceptable. Excusing theft renders the notion of property itself irrelevant. Meaning someone can take from you at their convenience as well.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's not "just as bad" But as someone who does retail in a large corpo, all the corpo does is eat the cost by cutting our hours and we have to clean up the empty trash, document and deal with HR being on our ass about anti theft. The only thing shoplifters do for a large corpo is make it less pleasant to work and shop there.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

They would raise price regardless.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Not paying taxes is stealing from all of us.

by Desperate_Wing 2 days ago

These companies already have these losses calculated in their budget, they know it's going to happen and plan ahead for it.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That doesn't make the act of stealing less morally wrong.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's not the point being conveyed.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

What is the point being conveyed?

by InfluenceOk9251 2 days ago

Is there a functional difference between something being stolen and increasing costs vs planning for something to be stolen and increasing costs?

by InfluenceOk9251 1 day ago

On paper they would just call it inflation.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Maybe not, but it's the basis; you should not take something from someone without their permission.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Stealing is bad, as simple as that. Stealing from a rich and large corporation doesn't make it less bad.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Piracy is not stealing, by definition of stealing. Piracy is contract violation, and the argument can be made whether this contract should be honored or if it should be void.

by Grant57 1 day ago

I am not using pirated software or copied CDs / DVDs either. It's not about how damaging it is to their business, but about what it means for my conscience.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It's copyright infringement. to be clear, i don't care about piracy, but it's definitely stealing. Just gotta come to terms with that.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

But, all those stores closed because of shoplifting. The decisions were definitely not greedy calculations by soulless corporations whose only goal is to maximize profits.

by Casperluigi 1 day ago

My biggest point against shoplifting from corporations is that they aren't inherently invincible. Sure we like to believe that the business won't shut down but they do. Can't shoplift from sears anymore. I don't think it's just as bad though.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

If they raise prices, they lose customers. The only raises being put off are in management, the actual employees are still going to be paid the bare minimum it takes to make people willing to work there. There will be no hiring freezes, because most of the employees don't see it as a lasting career path and quit as soon as they find something better, so they constantly need to hire more people.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Large corporations are inherently evil, small businesses are not necessarily. It's better to hurt something evil than something not as evil. QED.

by Yostdwight 1 day ago

How are they inherently evil

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Let's say there's a company that's worth 400+ billion dollars. This company is so unbelievably rich they spend 50 million dollars monthly and it doesn't even dent their pockets, If I were to take an item worth $5 from them, that's at a rough estimate of 0.00000000125% of their worth. Now compare that to a mom & pop store that spends all the money they make on rent, food, electricity bill and restocking their store.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

In your fantasy, are you also pretending that the company doesn't have to spend the majority of their money managing their stores?

by Anonymous 1 day ago