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> History has a lot to say on this topic. [...] Society is much better off with some people helping the poor and law and order being maintained. What history h
by pyrale 11y ago
> History has a lot to say on this topic. [...] Society is much better off with some people helping the poor and law and order being maintained.
What history has to say is that, at many points, society has failed to provide help for the poor on a volunteer basis, and that said people have died of starvation and/or violated the law to avoid it.
If you expect that the normal order of things is for people to voluntarily donate in order to avoid hunger problems, then you have to admit that law and order will be broken on occasions, because the nominal food-providing mechanism occasionally fails.
- jerf 11y agoI'm going to come back to the concrete on this, though. Do we have any reason to believe Italy is in this situation, though? We're not really arguing a hypothetical here. I readily concede the analysis might get more difficult in Somalia or in a war-torn area, but this is Italy. Is there really no other option for this person other than theft? Because I find that hard to believe. Who cares about hypotheticals that don't apply to the current situation? Well, philosophers, sure, but it's a completely different question than what we're actually faced with here.
- Avshalom 11y agoWell we have the judge's ruling in this exact case we are discussing right now as evidence that sometimes people in Italy need to steal food to survive.