>So would you seriously consider doing robbery or not? You seem to think our behavior is entirely rational. Even aside from the free will debate, this is compl

>So would you seriously consider doing robbery or not? You seem to think our behavior is entirely rational. Even aside from the free will debate, this is completely untrue. Our behavior is motivated by a combination of unconscious impulses and consciously directed goals. If the unconscious impulses to steal became great enough it would override any rational ideals about property rights and such. Of course you'll retort that there are millions of poor folks that don't steal so I couldn't possibly be right. Well that's true, but how many of them are kept in line by external factors such as potential jail time, shame, embarrassment, fear, etc? This is the point of society after all--create external motivations for behaviors that are beneficial to the group. All those that don't steal is not an indication that they do it for purely rational reasons. The point is that asking "would you seriously consider robbery" to someone who is relatively well off is not a meaningful question, just like you saying (from your place of privilege) that you would never consider violating someone else's property rights no matter how destitute you became is a meaningless declaration.