>But at the end of the day, teaching your kid to starve to death because stealing is always wrong is only going to erode their trust in you. This is a misinter

>But at the end of the day, teaching your kid to starve to death because stealing is always wrong is only going to erode their trust in you. This is a misinterpretation of my point, though. When I brought up the "defense of necessity", it was a direct acknowledgement that sometimes stealing is ok (or is at least, the more moral action). However, communicating vague heuristics based on shaky principles can set the ground for rationalization that leads to immoral behavior. When we read about abhorrent behavior (like in the featured article), it's more often than not the result of a line of rationalizations rooted in human biases rather than a principled moral stance. All I'm saying is the OP's guideline of "don't steal tools or a vehicle" isn't a particularly good first principle (for one, as the previous example shows, it could still result in starving).