Would you respect property rights if you were starving? (Representatives, ideology, education)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a question for the libertarians out there. If you were starving and your neighbor had a field of produce, would you steal food from the field or would you respect property rights and continue starving?
More details please. Why am I starving? And for how long?
Before I got to the point of starvation, I would get some chickens so that I would have the eggs to eat. And then I would plant my own field of produce.
I would also get a job at a restaurant.
There is never a need for stealing. And the neighbor having a field of produce implies to me that my property should be able to have produce also. Otherwise, IMO more people should be growing mini gardens akin to the victory gardens of WWII.
This seems reasonable and realistic, however there are always edge cases (mean farmers and vindictive beggars). How do you stop potential violence?
Also if you are a libertarian do you believe that, in the shoes of the farmer, your property rights are absolute such that whatever you decided is justified?
You call the farmer mean? He is not. That food you stole is taking food away from his family.
At the lowest point of the Depression in 1933, the unemployment rate was 25%. That meant that for every 100 people out of work and looking for it, 75 people got work and 25 didn't. And that was the peak unemployment rate. The Great Depression average from 1929-1940 was ~15%. There was work to be had, just less than normal.
To the original topic - there is never a justification for initiating force against someone (as always, except for the force required to save the life someone who is unconscious and cannot give consent to you to put your hands on them in order to save them, as in CPR, grabbing drowning person, pulling unconscious person out of fire, etc). If you have the physical wherewithal to steal, you have the physical wherewithal to work, either for your own survival directly or producing something of value that you can trade for that which will aid your survival.
I say this to every person other than the OP, who in this thread has demonstrated that every option other than stealing will result in moved goalposts and updated conditions in order for anything other than stealing to be impossible. Everyone else understands that even if you cannot provide trade value directly to the neighbor farmer, you can provide value to someone else who will compensate you with something that you can then trade with the farmer. I do not work directly for a grocery store in order to receive food as compensation, but I do work for my employer, who pays me in cash, and I trade my cash for the groceries.
And even if work is impossible, truly needy have always been handled by private charity. What private charity cannot handle is the vast expansion of "needy" into the current meaning of "the truly needy, as well as anyone who just doesn't feel like being a productive member of society." The truly needy, they actually get tended to by private charity quite well, and always have, even in the heartless US.
This is a question for the libertarians out there. If you were starving and your neighbor had a field of produce, would you steal food from the field or would you respect property rights and continue starving?
no one would starve, they'd be forced to go and get food....and so would you, regardless of political affiliation...sheesh....
And even if work is impossible, truly needy have always been handled by private charity. What private charity cannot handle is the vast expansion of "needy" into the current meaning of "the truly needy, as well as anyone who just doesn't feel like being a productive member of society." The truly needy, they actually get tended to by private charity quite well, and always have, even in the heartless US.
There's never a justification to steal.
you are correct, but human nature dictates differently when your starving to death...no, there is never a justification to steal...never, but, when going hungry, people would, and I honestly cannot tell you what I'd do, they say hunger makes you do things you wouldn't ordinarily do?
I also know that my dad, wouldn't take a darn thing from anyone, if he didn't work for it, and there are people out there like that, but to sit back and watch your children and wife starve, that would be a different story.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
