Does hunger justify stealing ?

[brinny]

What if they refuse to work? Every see the John Stossel report in which he offered to feed them if they did some small chore? Not one person showed up.

Were they starving?

Just as a side note, what do you picture when you think of "starving"?

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Were they starving?

Just as a side note, what do you picture when you think of "starving"?

They were not starving.

Poverty in the US isn't really poverty. You have to visit the third world to see starvation.

 

[brinny]

They were not starving.

Poverty in the US isn't really poverty. You have to visit the third world to see starvation.

I understand your point, but not necessarily.

There can be vulnerable adults, children, etc. who can be starving.

When i think of starving, perhaps what i have in mind is the element of desperation involved.

 

[Endtime Survivors]

The other problem, which I believe one other poster brought up is that of the cause of the hunger. For instance, I know people, some are relatives, who have no money because they are too lazy to work. Would they be justified in stealing food?

Hi Jimmy. Some of your posts are confusing in their consistency. Earlier you said...

God indeed placed in the very places were are now. Being born in a first world country vs a third world country is His doing, not ours.

We should thanks to God for all things, just as Job did.

In one case, you suggest that people should not complain about whether they have enough, or not enough money to pay for the food God has created for us humans; that we humans should be thankful even if we are born into a third world situation where there is not enough money, opportunity, or skill (which is needed to get the money in our current economic system).

But then you also suggest that people starve because they are lazy. The two do not seem compatible. If God chooses to create life in an area of the world where they cannot get enough food, then it should not matter whether they work or do not work; God made his choice. Actually, based on your reasoning, it could even be seen as against God's will for a poor person to work hard for more money, if God indeed chose for them to be born poor.

Would you mind clarifying?

 

[SkyWriting]

If there is a an overweight rich person with excess food on his table and I am starving?

Lucky for you. Ultra-Low calorie diets prolong life.
Did you want to be a thief as well? That's rude.

 

[Endtime Survivors]

Did you want to be a thief as well? That's rude.

Or, conversely, radrook could ask you if you want to starve, as well. The context is whether or not there are any circumstances in which theft could be justified based on physical need. Asking whether someone wants to be a thief (or whether they want to starve) misses the point of the ethical dilemma.

 

[SkyWriting]

Or, conversely, radrook could ask you if you want to starve, as well. The context is whether or not there are any circumstances in which theft could be justified based on physical need. Asking whether someone wants to be a thief (or whether they want to starve) misses the point of the ethical dilemma.

There is no such dilemma. A person on the verge of starving cannot effectively steal. Starving people have 1000's of other options before they die. Asking for help is a common one. I've know people to give away food, and so does the government. Stealing is not an option for a person who can think. Energy used for stealing is better used for buying low and selling high.

 

[bhsmte]

I sometimes think it is easy to have ethics and morals if you are comfortable and living in a first world country.
Wont we behave just like hungry dogs If we happen to be poverty-stricken? We might fall into prostitution if we have no other skills, no other way of making money. So easy to judge the people who have to make a living like that.
Even selling drugs. If I have kids to feed and few other options, I might be tempted.
Ok if you are a saint, you can resist all this. Sometimes I think saints are inhuman.

People in desperate situations will do things others who are not in that situation, deem immoral.

Humans have an instinct to survive and it is a quite powerful instinct.

 

[Moral Orel]

If the theft is justified because of hunger then rape would be justified because of strong sexual desire, and so on, and so on with any crime.

You're not going to die from strong sexual desire, you will eventually die from hunger or thirst. How compassionate, though, to compare the impoverished with rapists...

 

[Endtime Survivors]

You're not going to die from strong sexual desire, you will eventually die from hunger or thirst. How compassionate, though, to compare the impoverished with rapists...

Finally, someone else sees it...

 

[SkyWriting]

People in desperate situations will do things others who are not in that situation, deem immoral.Humans have an instinct to survive and it is a quite powerful instinct.

Only humans have the option of giving their lives for others by choice.
And the choice is more powerful than instinct.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

You're not going to die from strong sexual desire, you will eventually die from hunger or thirst. How compassionate, though, to compare the impoverished with rapists...

I was comparing actions, not poor or rich.