A moral question for you all

[WhaleSharkBootySweat]

Imagine you go into a really nice small business selling either homewares or food. You pick something up that you really like, but it's the end of the month and you can't really afford it. What is the main reason that stops you from stealing it?

A.) Fear of getting caught, punished, criminal record, shame, losing your job
B.) Sympathy for the small business owner, not wanting them to lose money

Or something else.
For me it's massively more B but then I don't steal from chain stores, so I guess A must come into it then?
I just wonder where these moral decisions we make daily come from. Is it fear of repercussions or genuine moral compass? Why do a third of shoppers steal from self checkouts but wouldn't steal from a cashier at the till?
I think about the idea that if there wasn't law and order, then we would all steal and murder, but I genuinely believe that most of us wouldn't? I mean I've never felt compelled to, but why is that? Empathy?

B definitely is about morals
Is it morally worse to steal from a shop where the owners are scraping by compared to stealing from a big chain who have massive loss adjustment areas anyway and profit gouge?

Kant said that only good actions done out of a good will are truly moral . You do them solely because it's right, not because the law says, or public opinion agrees or for reward (including feeling good about it). He believed we all have an innate sense of this even if we might choose to ignore it frequently. He said things should only be done if you can "universalise" your action. If you'd be happy for everyone to do what you're proposing then it's right. If not, it's wrong.
Personally I don't agree....aside from some very few things like rape, torture and abuse there's usually grey area. But no I wouldn't condone stealing from that kind of shop. A Jean Valjean "stealing bread for a starving child" scenario, possibly.

No, it's exactly the same.

From a small independent business morals stop me. From a large business with unethical practices then only the fear of being caught. I don't have a moral objection to stealing from unethical ceos who exploit their labour force.

C it is theft and it is wrong and there are no victimless crimes. It wouldn't even enter my head to steal something where would it end?

And to the PP who implied that it's OK to steal food for your baby - no it's still not OK.
If everyone took what they wanted without paying - then the poor shopkeeper would also not have any money.

A third of shoppers steal from self-checkouts?

It's wrong to steal.End of.

It's theft, there is no decision making process of thought.

I wouldn't pick something up and steal it, in the same way I wouldn't drop my trolleys and pee on the floor!

It's an interesting question. If I think about it, what goes through my head isn't anything about the shop owner or big company. It's more inward-focused, it's more about what doesn't go through my head. It doesn't occur to me to steal things because those things don't belong to me. Doesn't matter who they belong to. They're not mine, ergo the thought of picking them up and walking away with them doesn't enter my head.

The thing is, if you nick something from a large business with unethical practices, it'll be a lowly-paid member of their labour force facing the consequences. Not the big bosses who deserve it.

Option C - it just wouldn't occur to me that stealing it was a possibility.

It just wouldn't occur to me to steal it, not something I've ever entertained.

Check out the legal scholar, Ronald Dworkin. He managed to write a whole book trying to answer the question.

This is quite a good example of the concept that there's no such thing as right or wrong. Majority of time when a person does something it's because they believe it's right for them, at that time at least, regardless of whether that thing is classed as wrong either morally or legally. That's why people commit crimes. They believe they're doing the right thing them themselves at that particular time. Well, that and the fact that they don't expect to get caught.

I 100% agree with everyone saying stealing is just wrong, but who hasn't taken a carrier bag at the self checkout, not paid for it, and justified it to themselves?

C: it’s wrong.

For me it’s just the self centred, audaciousness. Why do YOU get to steal and the next hundred people have to pay for it? You must think so much of yourself to think the rules don’t apply to you.

Because just wanting something isn't an excuse to steal.

I feel a bit differently if you NEED food, have no money, can't get support and steal a loaf of bread or something but there is no good excuse for 'I wanted it so i took it' whether it's from a small retailer or a big one.

Interesting question OP.
I think it’s healthy to interrogate right and wrong sometimes and question our own morality. After all homosexuality was “just wrong” until a few decades ago (and is still considered such in some quarters”.) Morality is not the same for everyone and in all circumstances.

For me it’s both A and B, but A is stronger in the little independent craft store, B is stronger in a supermarket. The ‘A factor’ in a supermarket would be concern for the individual checkout guy or security person who might be sanctioned because the tills don’t add up.

Because it's morally wrong? Unless you are literally on your knees and can't get to a food bank and have kids to feed and you're nicking a loaf of bread, being a thief is a scummy way to live.

@JauntyJinty , stealing is wrong. When you steal it causes the big corporations to put up their prices and you steal from us all.

I get it OP.

We know that stealing is wrong because we’ve been brought up to know that it’s wrong. And because we know it’s wrong we just don’t do it. There doesn’t need to be thought behind it.

But the law is based on the Ten Commandments (not getting into religious discussion here just pointing out the basis for law), and because of that order prevails, and we know right from wrong.

But what if there never was law? What if we as a society had never been brought up to abide by certain laws and principles? The word theft wouldn’t exist, and in that case, would we still believe that taking something was wrong?

I think there are certain things that many of us wouldn’t do regardless. Killing another human being for me seems incomprehensible because it’s taking a life and I’m not sure I could do it even if I wanted to. But I think that wrt other laws there would certainly be grey areas if we’d never been brought up to think that those things were wrong.

Because I was brought up to know right from wrong. Also I once heard a lady say if children steal it just shows they haven't been brought up properly. It's sort of stuck with me that this is what some people think.

There are many who would argue differently though

The thing that would stop me would be being insufficiently desperate. If I was starving and destitute I’d probably nick food, but I wouldn’t choose a small business selling niche/artisan products for that.