Mines a bit different, but similar. “If you see someone shoplifting, no you didn’t” only applies to chain stores. Walmart? Fuck 'em. Target? Get all you can. Local boutique store downtown? The fuck is wrong with you, go steal from a corporation that deserves it.

I am with you- unless it’s a small business. If I saw someone stealing from some little mom and pop shop full of Amish-made soap and jam, I’m going to say something. Because I don’t want mom and pop to go hungry either.

If you’re gonna cut staff and build a giant bank of self check kiosks instead, then I consider it a perk of my temporary employment at the checkout line. I’ll take pork chops and veggies in lieu of a paycheck thanks

I think I might have cared in the past because “it’s against the law” but I’ve grown up and don’t care about that at all anymore… My opinion on shoplifting is now just “why would I even care?” I wouldn’t do it personally, but I have no problem with other people stealing shit (especially shit they need to live and thrive) from a soulless corporation. I wouldn’t be happy if they mugged a random person… But Target? Why would I care?

Lots of people get by without wearing glasses too, but that doesn’t mean that my blind eyes don’t need them.

Lots of people get by without a therapist, but that doesn’t mean my crumbling mental health doesn’t need one.

Everyone needs different things to lean on – don’t shame others for having their own needs, even if you don’t understand what it’s like to be in their head. :-)

They don’t get jobs as flight attendants. If you already work in an industry that mandates make up use, and you’re doing it tough, shoplifting make up seems like a smarter financial choice than getting fired over a lack of make up and having to find work in an entirely new industry.

As someone who currently doesn’t even own a single article of make up (unless you count tinted zinc), yes, you can get by without it, but not everyone can, and loosing your job over other when you’re already struggling financially isn’t ideal.

They’re just casual women, they don’t go in the professional circuit

Good for them, but a desperate person is going to look for any edge they can get.

That’s your privilege showing. Women 100 percent aren’t taken as seriously in general but especially if they aren’t ‘prettied’ up.

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I am very glad to hear it.”

Humans are animals. All of us. Our genetics drive us to procreate. That is our base nature. Now, you can easily argue that our Big Brains have the capacity to reason, understand, and logic our way to a path that avoids self destructive behavior. That is true. Yet here we still deal with things like drug abuse, war, violent crime, and yes…unwanted pregnancy.

You aren’t going to stop people from banging and having kids. It’s written into our genes. What you can do is make a society where those numbers can be reduced as much as possible with education (you got that part right, but that access should be from primary to higher education), cheap/free contraception, abortion access (dare I say “free” medical care?), and basic food/child care that is accessible to all. So that poor person’s kid has a shot at not following the same path.

Wagging your finger in sex ed saying “no, no…don’t fuck, it’s expensive to have a kid” really isn’t going to fix much.

All for improving that education system!

But we’re also already in a situation where infertility is on the rise and people with means are culturally enticed to worship their careers so much they just skip procreation altogether.

Stable relationships in which to foster healthy children are also becoming rarer across the board.

So now all the powers-that-be that encouraged this Grand Canyon-sized, gilded-age class gap in the first place, and said “Well if you’re poor you’re obviously unfit to survive so don’t make more of you lol”, and also decided “retirement age” shouldn’t be a thing, are currently losing their minds as they read reports about our population falling “dramatically below replacement levels.” :D

“NoBoDy’S LeFt To WoRk AnYmOrE :(” lol

Maybe we shouldn’t blame poor women for stealing to feed their babies and should blame the government that allows it to happen?

What’s your opinion on stealing name brands?

Whenever I mention groceries being expensive, I have a few people comment that it’s my own fault for buying name brands, and I agree, name brands aren’t worth it when you’re pinching pennies.

But I have allergies, and I have to be careful with shared equipment. I’ve had allergic reactions to certain brands of oats but not others, so even a cheap staple food like oats I may end up paying way more than the average person because I can’t risk certain brands.

Sometimes that works in the opposite direction too, in a quest to find a brand of veggie stock powder I wasn’t allergic to, I ended up riding my bike to the next town to try their asain grocers and found a huge 500g tin of stock powder for like $4, easily 5 times cheaper than any other brand at my usual store, and I wouldn’t have gone hunting for it had the previous brand not changed their ingredients as part of a whole shrinkflation/cheaper ingredients for the same price end product initiative.

But I often wonder if people saw someone like me stealing, or using food stamps today buy name brand products, would they prejudge me as being superfluous without knowing my allergies already severely limit my diet, brand restrictions limit it even more.

I doubt people are stealing directly from Nike. They would be stealing from Foot Locker or some shit, which means Nike already made their buck off the shoes. But whatever justification people need to snag a free pair of shoes, I guess.

How exactly do you think it impacts other people shopping at Walmart when someone steals some food there?

It comes from Walmart the billion dollar corporation.

Walmart, which steals from the pockets of all their employees in the form of wage theft, and steals from us in the form of tax avoidance, paying employees just enough so they qualify for foodstamps and Medicaid (programs which come from our tax dollars) and pay to show them how to sign up for those programs instead of paying them enough money for groceries and insurance (which they have way more than enough to be able to do). Money they have by stealing customers from small business by underpricing for a loss until Walmart is all that’s left so they can raise money and steal from those customers by inflating prices for profit of the owners.

You only think it’s simple because you don’t actually know the problem.

If you hold a light in a dark infinite room, with all the things you see being the things you know and the circumference of the circle of dark around you as the things you don’t know that you don’t know,

Your light would be a dim candle that doesn’t even let you see enough to know what the problem is, let alone that light being bright enough to know the answer.

And they can’t necessarily compensate by rising prices. So I don’t see what your point is.

And that is priced in already.