re: #179 KGxvi

It goes to motive. The idea most people have is that you don’t need to steal something that you already have a lot of (I don’t need to steal a loaf of bread because I have two at home). The problem with this line of thinking is that it ascribes only one possible motive to theft, particularly “need.” But history has shown us a million times (and its a favorite trope of storytelling) that the wealthy can and will commit illegal acts not because of “need” but because of “want.” In some cases, it’s an attempt to have a bigger bank account than the other guy - a means of keeping score. In others, it’s the idea of having something unique and only letting a select few enjoy it - so, I’m going to buy that Monet that might have been stolen by the Nazis and then sold on the black market, and keep it in my bathroom rather than give it to a museum.

And it kind of loops around to the very idea that wealth imbues virtue. That someone stealing so they can subsist is inherently a more evil person than someone who steals because greed, simply because the latter has more already than the former.