07 July, 2008

Why I Love Shoplifting

Why I Love Shoplifting.

This is a nice article I lifted from the Crimethinc Ex-Workers' Collective http://www.crimethinc.com It pretty much says what I think without making me write it all out.
How many of us have shoplifted an item that we believed to be too much to pay or just out of sheer protest? And really, what’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing! Read on…http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/days/shoplifting.php

Now before I make myself out to be a total outlaw let me say that I love to Shoplift from larger corporations because, hey, it serves as a protest against the "high cost of low wages" and there is a separate thrill of it all that many can relate to.

I do not condone shoplifting from smaller local shops or mom & pop stores. It is the mass production widget producers that have cornered the market on our daily lives that I tend to engage in economic sabotage. And think about parking lots. If you could "steal time" and park in a lot or meter and get away before being caught would you really consider that stealing? I have a personal gripe about paying to drive and paying to park. My taxes and speeding tickets pay my way to drive so I hate paying tools. And paying to park? Another rant completely. Sure, I'll do it. But if I can get away without paying to park? You better believe I will.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You stealing things is not going to stop the large corporations.

“It is an expression of discontent with the low wages and lack of benefits that so many exploiting corporations force their employees to suffer in the name of company profits”

Completely not true. By you stealing from that corporation, you have now forced those workers to work for even less. Granted they may only be making pennies from every dollar the item costs, but by stealing it, you’ve now stolen those pennies from them.

Stealing only costs everyone else more. You got it free, but because the corporation is taking a loss from stealing, everyone else pays more to make up their bottom line cost. This is completely, totally and utterly selfish.

” It is a refusal to fund the environmental damage that so many corporations perpetrate heartlessly in the course of manufacturing their products and building new stores”

Once again, just because you steal it, doesn’t mean they are going to stop making it. A better protest would be to do without. Or plant a tree.

“that an hour of one person's life can really be worth ten dollars more than that of another person.

This is a life choice. Choose something that pays well and reap the rewards. Choose a career that doesn’t pay well and figure out how to make it work. Your self-actualization ought to be your own personal happiness. And if being a thief makes you personally happy, well….

It is a refusal to accept the capitalist system”

If you are not happy in the western world capitalist system, communist China is accepting visas I think.

"If we are not able to find or afford any products other than these, that were made a thousand miles from us and about which we can know nothing," it asserts, "then we refuse to pay for these."

Great. I love this. But you don’t have to steal to live this lifestyle.

“it is a refusal to put any cash into the economy at all, so that the shoplifter can be sure that none of her cash will ever end up in the hands of the corporations she disapproves of. In addition to that, she will have to work less for them, as well!”

Try subsistence farming. I know a guy who has no electricity, running water, or phone. He grows most of what he eats and has totally turned his back on society. He doesn’t need to steal.

“So the shoplifter is stealing from a non-human entity, not directly from the pocket of a human being.”

See earlier comment. Completely not true. The cost gets rolled downhill to the slave-wage folks and then ultimately the other consumers.

“To shoplift is to affirm immediate, bodily desires (such as hunger) over abstract "ethics" and other such ethereal constructs, most of which are left over from a deceased Christianity anyway”

This has nothing to do with Christianity or abstract ethics. Stealing is hardly an abstract ethic. I think every religion in the world has a tenet against stealing. It is bottom-line, plain-out wrong. End of story.

As for parking lots, that’s a different story because there is no end-of-the-line user. And stealing cable… well…..

Unknown said...

Granted, all of these can be refuted, and if I did them on a daily basis I'd be in jail right now. (stealing is one thing, but stealing from corporate profits is like blasphemy to the Spanish Inquisition). And no, it won't stop anything that I actuallly protest. But it's one little almost invisible pebble in an avalanche (an avalanche that will probably nevver happen).

Cham said...

If you don't like large corporations then don't shop there. Theft is theft whether from Wal-Mart or anywhere else. I hope you get caught.

Unknown said...

well, getting caught is part of the thrill.

Anonymous said...

Getting caught wasn't much of a thrill when I was in 7th grade and got popped stealing a Prince cassette tape at the local Murphy's Mart (I had a nice little tape resale business at school thanks to my shoplifting prowess). In fact, getting caught pretty much cured me of ever stealing again, and I was doing it for profit and not for thrills or to stick it to The Man.

YMMV, I guess.

I am so wise said...

While I think most people who cite the arguments of the CrimeThinc article are full of shit, shoplifting as social protest is the mere extension of confiscation into the vigilante realm.

As shown by the civil rights movement, boycotting only goes so far. African-Americans were effectively forced to boycott numerous institutions because of Jim Crow law. Nothing happened.

When African-Americans engaged in violations of property rights, like trespassing, refusing to obey (then) lawful orders and request by the police to disperse, and engaging in denial of service attacks (the sit-downs prevented the effected establishments from serving customers) did progress occur.

Anonymous said...

You are not harming the corporations, but the people that are working there!!! When you steal, the corporations cut down on the hours available to the workers, because the merchandice will not be abailable to sell and the store does not earn enough. That affects how many hours the store can buy to give to their employees and they have to let people go or cut down on hours.
you are harming the people that work in those shops.

Anonymous said...

I have worked hard my whole life ... but I cannot afford to live. The cost of everything keeps going up (gas, groceries, rent, etc) but our wages do not go up to compensate for the increase in the cost of living. The rich are getting richer (these large corporations) and the poor are getting poorer. I'm sorry ... but I couldn't agree with you more. It's become survival now (for me personally) ... I never would have thought I would become a shoplifter ... but I do it for necessity. If I ever make more money and products come down in price ... I won't have to do this anymore.

For example ... just today ... I needed to buy basic shampoo and body wash ... well with taxes and all ... this would come out to $12.00. That means I have to work 1 hour just to afford shampoo!!! OUTRAGEOUS! Well I'm not doing it anymore. There is no need for things to cost that much. The mark-up is unbelieveable on all this stuff. And why???? Because of greed - The rich want to get richer. Making 100 million a year isn't enough for them anymore ... so if you can be greedy and take from the poor ... then the poor can return the favour.

Okay ... I'm done ranting now ... LOL!

Have a good day everyone!