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Just piling on, the big thing that I note is that it's not just stuff for the poorer people in society. It's their livelihood. If you screw up someone's car, yo
by omegaham 5y ago
Just piling on, the big thing that I note is that it's not just stuff for the poorer people in society. It's their livelihood. If you screw up someone's car, you are taking away their ability to get to work, to drive their kids to daycare, and so on.
I'm privileged enough that if someone puts my car out of service, I can swear gratuitously, call my boss to tell him that I'll be late to work, and get a rental while my insurance handles my car. As frustrated as I might be, it's not a life-and-death situation for me.
By contrast, Jimbo the night-shift line cook at Waffle House has significantly less margin for error. If he doesn't show up to work, he at best doesn't get paid and at worst gets fired. If he gets fired, he's now behind on his rent, plus he has to fix his car with money he doesn't have. He might need to take out a payday loan, or sell something important, or borrow money from family who is just as poor as he is.
With this in mind, I'm not going to say that Jimbo is morally justified in whacking a criddler who's messing with his car, but I'm not going to say he's not, either.
You see the same thing in action with immigrant-owned bodegas. It's just entries on a spreadsheet to Walgreens and CVS, but that's rent and food to Mr. and Mrs. Kim's family, and it's not surprising that they're significantly more inclined toward the shotgun-and-bat approach to loss prevention.
- SyzygistSix 5y agoHe might even resort to stealing catalytic converters to get by.
- tjr225 5y agoI’m pretty sure any car equipped with a catalytic converter is still perfectly drivable if the catalytic converter is removed.
- jxramos 5y agothis is absolutely true, when you startup your car it will become immediately obvious because the engine exhaust sounds will be tremendous. Basically all those exhaust strokes of the engine pour out directly to the atmosphere never making their way to the muffler which muffles their sounds.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tjr225 5y agoRight, but it won’t impact the livelihood of the victim which is the reason the person I am responding to has justified violence in response to catalytic converter theft. For what it’s worth I think people should be able to defend their property with force- but at least let’s be clear as to why.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y agoDiesels with DPF systems will not operate correctly without cats. You will have 50-250 miles on DPF system error that you MUST get it fixed or the vehicle will go into a limp-in mode.
- tjr225 5y agoThat’s true, but the vast, vast Majority of people getting their cats stolen are Honda Element and Toyota Prius owners.
- vb6sp6 5y agoyes but it wont pass an emissions test. And the repair can easily be $1,500 plus
- tjr225 5y agoSo we’ve got a government that isn’t enforcing any sort of rule against catalytic converter theft but is also forcing us to pass an emissions test after someone steals my catalytic converter.
- Nursie 5y ago> It's their livelihood. But it's also not their actual life.
- ornornor 5y ago> By contrast, Jimbo the night-shift line cook at Waffle House has significantly less margin for error. If he doesn't show up to work, he at best doesn't get paid and at worst gets fired. If he gets fired, he's now behind on his rent, plus he has to fix his car with money he doesn't have. He might need to take out a payday loan, or sell something important, or borrow money from family who is just as poor as he is. This is in large parts because of the cruel society the US chose to build even though the economy is developed enough to support a less exploitative model. I’m not saying poverty and hard lives don’t exist outside the US, but being fired from your minimum wage job because you called in sick once which kickstarts a series of events which has a very real chance of making you become homeless and without health insurance is a uniquely US-specific thing.
- Gravityloss 5y agoor Jimbo is tempted to steal a catalyzer to avoid getting into a high interest debt spiral that ends in homelessness?
- throwaway2331 5y agoPerhaps that makes "standing" one's "ground" towards thieves catharsis-by-proxy? ;) There is much less recourse for having one's surplus labor "stolen," as it's normalized. Legally-sanctioned shootings could be the U.S. society's relief valve.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Legally-sanctioned shootings could be the U.S. society's relief valve. No, legally sanctioned shootings aren't a relief valve, they ratchet up social tension rather than relieving it.
- throwaway2331 5y agoOn a grand scale, yes. But on an individual scale, the tension is released for the individual. In exchange for releasing the emotional pressure of one person, another dies, and many more are imbued with negative emotions. Very fitting parallel for the greater whole: zero sum.
- vb6sp6 5y agoMy friend just had his catcon replaced. Was $1,800
- charwalker 5y agoIf it helps, in TX you don't need auto insurance, just liability or ability to pay, last time I checked.