Would you steal bread to feed for family?

myp · Jul 11, 2010

It is a question that is commonly asked, even in a non-philosophical context. It is simple to understand, yet has deep moral and philosophical consequences. So, what is your answer to: "would you steal to feed your family?"

I am actually not sure on that one and I am not sure I would be until I was in that circumstance. I would certainly try everything I could before resorting to steal, but if there literally were no other options and it was for my family, I might just go ahead and steal that bread or food.

David · Jul 12, 2010

myp said:
It is a question that is commonly asked, even in a non-philosophical context. It is simple to understand, yet has deep moral and philosophical consequences. So, what is your answer to: "would you steal to feed your family?"

I am actually not sure on that one and I am not sure I would be until I was in that circumstance. I would certainly try everything I could before resorting to steal, but if there literally were no other options and it was for my family, I might just go ahead and steal that bread or food.

I'd steal. The immoral aspect of theft tends to disappear when placed next to 'letting your family starve even though you could have fed them'.

ferrari353 · Jul 13, 2010

It depends why you have to steal. If you absolutely have no way of getting food, then yes, but if you're one of those homeless people that don't want to work, but easily could if they tried (like the family in The Glass Castle), then no.

jdsingle · Jul 13, 2010

I'm a determinist (compatibilism is a joke) and therefore have no moral objection to stealing bread to feed my family. Survival of the fittest.

notimpressed · Jul 15, 2010

yeah, I start with finding the tables of Bankers.............................................

Frogger · Jul 15, 2010

Anyone can become Jean Valjean if they or their family are hungry and the moral code for stealing out of necessity is different from the moral code for stealing because you simply want something.

If the need arose I would not hesitate to steal. That does not mean I would steal under ordinary circumstances.

myp · Jul 15, 2010

Upon thinking about it a bit more, I think I agree with most of you in that I would steal the food as well.

I doubt it · Jul 25, 2010

If you have a family, you are responsible for feeding them. Everything is relative anyway. It's common sense if people are starving, you must do what is required to prevent that. Basic human instinct to preserve life.

obtuseobserver · Aug 4, 2010

given the option of watching my family starve or committing a crime to feed them would I commit the crime?

come on... who wouldn't?

my shame is greater for failing to feed my family than it is for violating the rules of society

Jeramie · Feb 14, 2011

You could steal. I would probably just go to someone's front door, knock, and politely ask if they could give me a loaf of bread. I would do whatever they wanted me to do, if anything, to get it. Then, after putting my clothes back on, I would go back to my family with the loaf and tell them that daddy stole it. If it became a regular gig, then i'd make something up about a job.

Iolo · Mar 8, 2011

I wouldn't have to steal - I'd take my fair share. Do I have a right to live? Yes. Do my family? Yes. If we are starving, do the rich have the right to steal our food? No. Silly question.

obtuseobserver · Mar 8, 2011

Jeramie said:
You could steal. I would probably just go to someone's front door, knock, and politely ask if they could give me a loaf of bread. I would do whatever they wanted me to do, if anything, to get it. Then, after putting my clothes back on, I would go back to my family with the loaf and tell them that daddy stole it. If it became a regular gig, then i'd make something up about a job.

you're rewriting the question

would you steal to feed your family? yes or no?

obtuseobserver · Mar 8, 2011

jdsingle said:
I'm a determinist (compatibilism is a joke) and therefore have no moral objection to stealing bread to feed my family. Survival of the fittest.

By that sentiment why not steal a car while you're at it?

Or rob a bank to pay your rent?

If they only thing that matters is survival, all other rules be damned, you'd find yourself in a brutal society. if you applied that morality here you'd wind up in prison quickly. Does that moral system make sense?

obtuseobserver · Mar 8, 2011

Iolo said:
I wouldn't have to steal - I'd take my fair share. Do I have a right to live? Yes. Do my family? Yes. If we are starving, do the rich have the right to steal our food? No. Silly question.

Take your fair share? You mean steal some one else's bread.

You have a right not to be killed without due process of law. You have no right to steal so you do not starve.

What's fair is working as hard as the person you stole from so you do not have to steal.

The question is about stealing to feed one's family. Rich or poor is immaterial. Circumstances may prevent wealth from mattering.

As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again. Poor ~Little Rich Girl Scarlett Ohara

Iolo · Mar 9, 2011

obtuseobserver said:
Take your fair share? You mean steal some one else's bread.

Who gives anyone else the right to bread when others are starving? The rich steal other people's work and have no rights, but they too should be fed.

obtuseobserver said:
You have a right not to be killed without due process of law. You have no right to steal so you do not starve.

They did under our law: if you'd asked for food in two parishes you were entitled to take what you needed. That's normal amongst humans. The rich steal everyone else's property and everyone has the right to take it back.

obtuseobserver said:
What's fair is working as hard as the person you stole from so you do not have to steal.

The rich do not pay you enough, so it is right to take everything you can from them and share it with human beings.

obtuseobserver said:
The question is about stealing to feed one's family. Rich or poor is immaterial. Circumstances may prevent wealth from mattering.

Of course it isn't immaterial: property is theft.

obtuseobserver · Mar 9, 2011

Iolo said:
Who gives anyone else the right to bread when others are starving?

Natural law, property rights, the US constitution... the list is pretty long. You're conflating issues.

1) you have no right to be fed
2) you have no right to steal
3) that others have is no reason for you to demand what they have

Iolo said:
The rich steal other people's work and have no rights, but they too should be fed.

Huh? Are you saying that if some one is rich it is because they have stolen? If so that's just plain goofy.

Iolo said:
They did under our law: if you'd asked for food in two parishes you were entitled to take what you needed. That's normal amongst humans.

Now you qualified it a bit. Still, same result. You have no right to steal.

Iolo said:
The rich steal everyone else's property and everyone has the right to take it back.

Now you're off into la la land. Your proposition is the allegation of the angry, passionate and thoughtless.

But assuming the rich got that way through theft... because they steal does not give you permission to do so.

To analogize.... "Your honor.... I swear that rich guy helped me kill that girl." Neither gets a pass on the killing... nor the theft.

Iolo said:
Of course it isn't immaterial: property is theft.

When you get out of your communist phase and join the sane world you'll realize that private property and hard work are the engines of society that would pay for the governmental largesse you seem to believe is your due.

Jeramie · Mar 14, 2011

obtuseobserver said:
you're rewriting the question

would you steal to feed your family? yes or no?

No, because you don't need to steal it.

Iolo · Mar 14, 2011

obtuseobserver said:
By that sentiment why not steal a car while you're at it?

Or rob a bank to pay your rent?

If they only thing that matters is survival, all other rules be damned, you'd find yourself in a brutal society. if you applied that morality here you'd wind up in prison quickly. Does that moral system make sense?

Depends if other people need them more, I suppose. The rich steal from everyone, so they are fair game, obviously. The cops are the serfs of the robbers, as you know.

Iolo · Mar 14, 2011

For others - take it slowly: everything belongs to everyone, and the rich steal it. If we take it back and share it out, that is justice, not stealing, obviously. Americans are very thoroughly brainwashed, poor dabs. How could the land belong to anyone?: it is just there. How could people's work, or the products of that work, belong to anyone else? The rich, as you know, steal it. Any other little problems?

obtuseobserver · Mar 15, 2011

Jeramie said:
No, because you don't need to steal it.

yes

because they question is - would you steal to feed your family.

it is an ethical hypothetical based in the world of ideas. to reduce it to concrete terms and rewrite it completely misses the point

Would you steal bread to feed for family?

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