a) Being laid off is not nearly as bad as actually being stolen from (especially in countries with unemployment benefits) b) Speaking from personal experience:

a) Being laid off is not nearly as bad as actually being stolen from (especially in countries with unemployment benefits) b) Speaking from personal experience: having your wages stolen puts you in a horrible position of wondering if maybe you’ll get paid if you keep your head down, or worrying that you’ll be fired if you complain. The extortion is inherent in the nature of the theft, unlike shoplifting and most corporate embezzlement. It’s not just the money, it’s long-term abuse and exploitation of people who can’t easily defend themselves. c) Obviously there is a scale: the Enron embezzlement (which is analogous to your extreme example) is worse than stealing $100 from a single worker. But $50bn in stolen wages is a much graver crime than $50bn in embezzled goods.