Theft and Civilized Society

Many cultures of people across the face of the Earth have rules which generally apply to the keeping of a civilized society. In Christianity there is the Eighth Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” If you are a Scientologist you have in the thirteenth Way to Happiness, “Do not Steal.” One of the disciplines of Hinduism is, “No desire to possess or steal.”

While there are many other religions that have incorporated within them this idea that it is wrongful to steal the possessions or money of other people it is not just a religious concept. Almost every country, state, province, municipality, or any other division of government with a functional legal system across the face of the Earth has very thoroughly incorporated within it laws designed toward the prevention of theft.

It is a logical underlying principle of all laws, secular or non-secular, that in order to be enforced the terms of the laws must be defined and understandable by those who are expected to follow or enforce them. I could at this time write some fifty or sixty thousand words of examples of this directly taken from many various legal codes throughout the world but that would be unnecessarily pointless and complicated. So in my own typical writing style I will create an example of what I’m talking about that everybody can understand. That way in a layman’s philosophical terms we will all know what we are talking about.

Let’s say I need some money and I know you have some. In knowing you have some money I decide to walk up to you and politely ask you for it. In your kindness and generosity you ask me what my need for it is and upon agreeing with my need you give your money to me. Is this theft? No. Of course not.

Okay, now let us assume you again have money and in the keenness of your perception you see my need without asking and again with your kindness and generosity you just decide to walk up and give it to me. Is this theft? Again, no. Of course not.

Now let’s suppose I need money and I know you have some. I, in my need, walk up to you, punch you in the face, knock you down, kick you and take your money. Is this theft? Yes. Of course it is.

Again let us suppose I need money and I know you have some. I, in my need, walk up to you, and simply threaten to knock you down, kick you, and take your money. And you believe I could accomplish the task, so rather than having me beat on you, you give me the money. Is this theft? Yes. Of course it is.

And just one more time, let’s suppose I, in my need for your money, get a bunch of people to surround you, threaten you somehow, and take your money, instead of just doing it myself? It this theft? Yes. Obviously.

So from these five examples we can derive for ourselves, for the sake of discussion in the philosophic sense, what theft actually is. Theft, simply put, is the transfer of money or property from a donor to a recipient, under force or threat of force, against the will of the donor. That last part is bold in italics because it is the most important part of the sentence. In determining theft it is the will of the donor of the property or money that decides the issue. You cannot steal something which is willingly given. And you cannot call something charity that is taken against the will of the donor.

Just for the fun of it let’s see if there is a way around this “will of the donor” thing where we could possibly fool ourselves into believing we aren’t just taking someone else’s money.

Let us suppose I need money and I know you have some. I, in my need, walk up to you, abduct you, and lock you in a small room until you decide to give me the money I want. Does this get me around the idea that I’m taking your money against the will of the donor? Nope.

How about in the same scenario as the latest above I simply threaten to abduct you and hold you in a small room until you, in the belief I could do it, give me the money I want. Nope. It’s still theft.

Hmmm … What if I am not taking the money for myself? What if I need the money for someone else? What if my father has been sick and I need the money to pay for his medical bills, so I come over to your house with my gun and threaten you until you give me the money. Certainly because compassion for the needs of my father is involved, you would not consider it theft. But nope. It still is, by definition above, theft.

Well what if I, before going over to your house to threaten you and take your money to pay for my father’s medical bills, go around to every neighbor on the block, explain the situation and take a vote as to whether I should go to your house and take your money? You vote no and everybody else votes yes. I show up at your door, threaten you with my gun and take your money. Am I still taking money from the donor against his will? Yep. Is it still theft? Yep.

Okay, maybe that’s too direct. What if I do all of those things in the last paragraph but instead of me showing up at your door to threaten you and take your money I hire someone else to do it for me? That person can just take what I owe him for the task—seeing how I have no money—directly from the money he takes from you and give the rest to me so I can pay my father’s medical bills. Would I still be taking money from the donor against his will? Yes. Is it still theft? Ummm … yep. It is.

Maybe that’s still too direct. What if I get together with the rest of the neighborhood and elect someone to hire someone else to go to your house with a gun and threaten you and take your money and give it to me to pay Dad’s medical bills? Am I still taking money from you against your will? Yep.

Well then, how about if, instead of sending someone to your house with a gun the first time, we first send someone without a gun to threaten you with abduction until you pay? And then, should you be unwilling to cough up the cash, we send the second person with a gun to lock you in a small room until you change your mind about the situation? Is that still taking money against the will of the donor? Yep.

What if I do all of the above paragraph but instead, send you a threatening letter saying how you should give me your money, then send the first guy, then the second? Or better yet, I could send you a letter that if you don’t sign it admitting you owe me the money, I will send the first guy without a gun, then the second guy with the gun, then put you in a little room until you give me the money you owe me? That way when you accuse me of stealing money from you I would be able to present the court with a piece of paper that says you owed me the money. Is that still taking money from an unwilling donor?

What if we elect a bunch of people to decide your money should be taken from you to pay for my father’s medical bills, and those elected people hire someone else to send you letters, threaten you without guns first, then if you are unwilling to pay they hire someone with a gun to threaten you, and still unwilling to pay they slap you in restraints and haul you off to a small room until you decide to change your mind about the situation? Is that still taking money by force from an unwilling donor? Yep. It is.

So what if I say that instead of using the money to pay for only my father’s medical bills it is to pay for everybody else’s medical bills, plus ten thousand other things you may or may not approve of,  too? We then elect a bunch of people to decide your money should be taken from you to pay for everybody’s medical bills, and those elected people hire someone else to threaten you without guns first, then if you are unwilling to pay they hire someone with a gun to threaten you, and still unwilling to pay they slap you in restraints and haul you off to a small room until you decide to change your mind about the situation? Is that still taking money by force from an unwilling donor? Yep. It is.

Now what if we take this entire assembly of elected people and the people they hire to threaten you, take your money, and potentially incarcerate you, all against the will of the donor and call them a government? And what if we infuse into the population the idea that the people are all one and any one is all? And what if we fill their heads with the rather arrogant thought that they, as one person in concert with a simple majority of other people, and against the will of the minority of people in opposition, can somehow speak with authority about what other people should be forced to do with their money? For example: “I think we should spend money on people’s medical bills,” in spite of the fact that it, strictly speaking, is not money you’ve earned for yourself, and have that concept legally binding on unwilling donors forced with threatened incarceration to give up their well earned funds. Is this still taking money from people against the will of the donor?

Well what if while doing all of that we say that those people who have a lot of money have no real right to it anyway? What if without any evidence whatsoever, we simply accuse them of stealing it from someone else and have the government take it from them to pay for everybody else’s medical bills? What if we accuse them of being greedy? What if we say they have the responsibility to pay for the needs and arbitrary desires of everybody else, for the good and “General Welfare” (which can mean anything to anybody) of everybody else? What if for no reason whatsoever, based on a purely arbitrary standard, we say it isn’t fair that they have so much and we so little? Are we still taking money by force from unwilling donors? More than that though, at that point aren’t we also saying that there are no individual rights to property or money?

What if we say the poor are weak and the rich are strong so the poor have every right to fulfill their needs by taking money from the rich? Yes, again we are using the threat of force to take money from unwilling donors. But more than that there is the fallacious idea that the poor are somehow weak; while as a majority of people somehow still possess enough power to take what they want from the rich.

Socialism is the consideration that large groups of people have the right to take what they want from small groups of people. Theft is the taking of money from one person for the use of other people against the will of the donor. It does not matter who justifies it or how it is justified. It is still the idea that it is somehow a right of yours to take what was earned by, and belongs to, someone else. It is also the idea that somehow your majority rights matter and the rights of the minority of donors don’t.

In spite of whatever illusion you throw up in front of yourself to justify it and appease your guilty conscience, by taking money from unwilling donors, whether it be for someone’s healthcare or PBS, you are participating in a culture that will sooner or later experience the uncivilized attitude that the rights of individuals and minorities don’t matter when the interests of the masses are concerned.

Your consent to pay more taxes is just as irrelevant to the people who take the money as the lack of consent on the part of the people who voted against them. They're gonna take the money whether you want them to or not.

And in that light I would also ask you if it is  truly a civilized society when that society can justify, directly or otherwise, the threat of the use of guns and incarceration to say that you must share your wealth?