Look at that poor boy, for instance, on the street corner there. He is ragged, pale, and half-starved. He sees another boy, the son of wealthy parents, and that boy wears nice clothes, he is well fed, and he does not even deign to play with the poor kid. The ragged boy is angry at him he resents and hates the rich boy. And everywhere the poor boy goes he experiences the same thing: he is ignored and scorned, often kicked about — he feels people don’t think him as good as the rich boy, to whom every one is respectful and attentive. The poor boy gets embittered. And when he grows up, he again sees the same thing: the rich are admired and respected, the poor are kicked about and looked down upon. So the poor boy gets to hate his poverty, and he thinks of how he might become rich, get money, and he tries to get it in any way he can, by taking advantage of others, as others have always taken advantage of him, by cheating and lying, and sometimes even by committing crime.
Then you say that he is ‘bad’. But don’t you see what made him bad? Don’t you see that the conditions of his whole life have made him what he is? And don’t you see that the system which keeps up such conditions is a greater criminal than the petty thief? The law will step in and punish him, but is it not the same law that permits those bad conditions to exist and upholds the system that makes criminals?
Think it over and see if it is not the law itself, the government which really creates crime by compelling people to live in conditions that make them bad. See how law and government uphold and protect the biggest crime of all, the mother of all crimes, the capitalistic wage system, and then proceeds to punish the poor criminal.
Consider: does it make any difference whether you do wrong protected by the law, or whether you do it unlawfully? The thing is the same and the effects are the same. Worse even: legal wrongdoing is the greater evil because it causes more misery and injustice than illegal wrong. Lawful crime goes on all the time; it is not punishable and it is made easy, while unlawful crime is not so frequent and is more limited in its scope and effect.
Who causes more misery: the rich manufacturer reducing the wages of thousands of workers to swell his profits, or the jobless man stealing something to keep from starving?
from Now and After by Alexander Berkman, Chapter 4: How the System Works. Available to read for free here.
Zombie@feddit.uk 1 week ago
No. People trying to maximise profit from basic human requirements is why you need to get cheese taken out of a plastic cage.
Not the poor trying to feed themselves.
Get a grip of your priorities. The management and executives of Tesco, Sainsburys, M&S, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, etc are doing just fine, unlike the people having to risk a criminal record, arrest, public shame, and in some cases physical assault for £4 worth of bacon.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
It’s cheaper not to use the cage. But they do because luxury goods keep getting nicked. It’s the expensive products that go in a cage first. You don’t need brandy, yet that ends up in a cage.
I actually don’t want to live in a society rife with theft.
Zombie@feddit.uk 1 week ago
You already live in a society rife with theft. You’re just propagandised from birth not to see it.
Again from Now and After, Chapter 3: Law and Government. Available to read for free here.
ProIsh@lemmy.world 1 week ago
People generally steal because they need to. There’s theft because basic needs are so damn hard.
Would you steal? No? Why not? It’s it because you don’t need to.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
You could use the same logic to justify a lot of criminal activity at that point