7 June 2009
What is the difference between earning money and stealing money?
Posted by admin under: Philosophy .
This may seem like a simple question, but consider this:
A bank robber is not getting money for nothing, they must sacrifce a lot. They first must make a plan, collect the resources to carry out the plan. Then they must sacrifice their safety, freedom, and morals in order to complete the plan.
On the other hand, many people would say that a business owner makes money ethically. However, they take from the environment, pay people with as little as they can, and reap the profits from their exploits.
Can you draw a clear line between the two?
to janis and farien, so if someone blackmails another party into giving them money, then they earned the money?
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17 Comments so far...
Walter C Says:
8 June 2009 at 8:07 pm.
Yes, why yes I can. In fact, there is such a large difference that it isn’t even funny. Yes it is. Haha. Anyway, the difference is as much so as a kleptomaniac dwarf and a Pokemon.
MichM Says:
9 June 2009 at 5:07 pm.
I think the difference is the thoughts or feelings you have when you go to bed at night.
What are the demons that worry you constantly?
Thats the difference between earning and stealing
In your story above though the businessman is also stealing, we just dont call him a robber.
So there isnt a difference in the above two but if it were a normal working class guy compared to a bank robber then my initial answer applies.
janis616 Says:
12 June 2009 at 3:27 pm.
One has permission from the person/company the money is coming from and the other doesn’t. How much work is done or how ethical it is has nothing to do with it. If someone gives you money because you have done something for them, it is earning, if one takes money without permission and especially if it is without doing anything beneficial for the person, it is stealing.
farien3 Says:
15 June 2009 at 3:24 am.
The critical difference is consent. The business owner transacts business with the agreement of the client or customer. The funds he receives are given willingly in exchange regardless of whether or not the businessman is greedy, or ethical in his conduct.
The thief takes funds WITHOUT the consent or agreement of the owner of those funds. There is no transaction between parties.
spike#1 Says:
17 June 2009 at 2:55 pm.
Earning money = working for a living
Stealing money = capitalizing on capitalism
Edwin Says:
20 June 2009 at 8:26 am.
Your completely and utterly correct in your thinking, 100% correct and to hell with the morels and others beliefs, you are.
We are placed on this earth without equality and with the absence of guarantees. We have to survive, and the rules and laws that govern us are falsely imposed and are thus fictitious.
There are no rules to this place, world or universe but to survive by what ever means.
Sadly, you are correct, 100% so.
For every action in the universe there are equal and opposite reactions, avoid those by strategically planning and concise implementation, and you will not have to be there when the reaction takes place.
That’s just physics. Though it’s the fundamental rule of the universe, get it wrong, and you will be in the wrong place at the wrong time! That’s why there are so many dull individuals living without liberty. Saying that, there are losers and winners in ever walk of life, they too would reluctantly disagree with this statement, stating life is not fare. Oh but life is everything you have the balls to make it my friend.
Edx
sophist Says:
22 June 2009 at 5:06 pm.
The clear difference is that the businessman exchanges goods and services for money. The bank robber exchanges nothing.
letaican Says:
23 June 2009 at 5:48 pm.
When money is earned, if life were as it should be, we should be proud of what we did to earn it. It is not always that way in real life however. Stealing is not earning, it is planning to take what you have not earned, and does not belong to you.
Doctor J Says:
26 June 2009 at 7:14 pm.
When someone ‘earns’ money, both parties are willingly involved in the transaction. When someone steals, the victim is not a participant by choice.
anakabe Says:
30 June 2009 at 4:49 am.
Factor in the theft of a person’s soul-no one was created to be a slave, right?
Cyndi Says:
30 June 2009 at 7:18 pm.
Yes, actually: there are three ways to steal.
1. Stealing money from the bank is the most common way, thought of today. Stealing is done against the will of the person (the banker & the investors), & the one stealing takes it by force.
2. Another kind of stealing which most people do not think about is this: We pay taxes to the states & the feds & they take that money & give it to the people who are too lazy to work, called the Welfare System. They legally rob hard workers of money they earned, which rightfully belong in the pockets of those who earned the money, by working for it & making an honsest living. We can also go a step further & say that those who do not teach the children the things that they need to be taught, doing all that is within their means to teach children how to read, etc…….: They to rob the system of money, when they only do part of their job. It is no wonder that children can’t read & are found illiterate.
3. Not everyone realizes this but we owe God & we rob him, of what belongs to him. He gives us money & supplies foryour needs & what do we do with that money? Do we seek God & ask him what he wants us to do with that money, are we frugal: spending it on what God would have us to spend it on?
What they do in order to get money, doesn’t make it right: no matter what the sacrifice is. If you do wrong in order to do right, it doesn’t make it right. And if you do right in order to do wrong. The world things that good is bad & bad is good & they will be judged by God for it.
However, most people do not know God, because they are God rejectors. That is still no excuse!! God died for our sin’s that we may except his free gift of Eternal life in heaven. God gives us a free Gift & a choice & we all have it to make.
What we do with the Knowledge of this free gift is up to us & where we end up when we die is our choicce. However, if you follow the wrong crowd, to damnation a life in an Eternal hell (Not a party with friends), It is up to us: we are responsible for the choices we make.
When you see a Holy & Righteous God before you, you are without excuse & will be judged according to His Holy Word: The Bilbe. No, matter what you think you might say or how you might respond, you are left without excuse!!
This world as we know it is coming to an end. The most important thing you can ask yourself @ this point is where are you going when you die?
Read about the truth, in comic form @:
&/Or read below:
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That Who May Know _______. You see God wants you to know for sure. May doesn’t mean maybe or might, it mean’s that you will know, that you have eternal life.
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3. Here is Where Sin Came From: In Romans 5:12 The Bible says:”Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world…….”. This mean’s that Adam commited the first sin & that it was passed down to the whole world, through Adam. “And death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.
This word “Death” here doesn’t mean just dying & going to the grave; it mean’s separation from God in the Lake Of Fire. This is our punishment for our sin, & it is a debt you owe as of right now.
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1. Know 1 John 5:13
2. Realize Roman’s 3:10 & 23
3. Believe Romans 6:23
Now, we have gone over these verses.
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3. You believe that Jesus died on the cross, & shed his pure & precious blood for your sin’s. _______Yes!!
Then this is what you need to do:
Romans 10:9-13 The Bible say’s: “Tat if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the jew and the greek: for the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Now whosoever mean’s YOU. Add you name in these blanks: “For _______ Shall call upon the name of the Lord, and _______ shall be saved.
Now, if you will trust Jesus to take you to Heaven when you die, just bow your head with hands folded together & pray this prayer below:
Dear Jesus,
Forgive me of my sins. I trust you today, Jesus, and only in you, to take me to Heaven when I die. Thank You for saving me. Amen
****According to the Bible, if you were to die today, where would you go when you die? (Heaven).
That is right because the Bible in John 3:36 says,
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Reaper Says:
30 June 2009 at 7:23 pm.
Are you seriously wondering if stealing money is a bad thing? What are you going to say when someone steals something from you?
Are you going to say something like “psh, they deserve it”? They worked hard for it, why not? So according to you, they deserve or have the right to keep that money that you earned? Are you going to say “don’t steal”? Well then why not?
Business owner takes from the environment?
You gotta be kidding me. It’s more like earning or recieving from the environment.
You obviously don’t know how the system works in that area.
Philo Says:
2 July 2009 at 8:29 pm.
When you earn money, you TRADE your labor (or product of labor, or resources) for the other person’s money (or labor, or product, or resources) at a mutually agreed upon rate. When you steal you TAKE the other person’s resources and give NOTHING back. There is no mutually agreed on exchange, and whatever efforts, risks, and costs you incurred are of NO VALUE to your victim. Worse, once you’re caught, the victim has to pay taxes to feed, cloth, and house you in prison because he’s too compassionate to just put a 50 cent bullet through your head, and even then it will cost the society something to bury you.
If the business owner takes so much from the environment he exhausts the resource, he’s out of business. If he pays too little, no one will work for him, and he’s out of business. He has to COOPERATE with the environment and everyone involved in the business to stay in business.
The key distinction is the CONSENT of the other people involved.
Opinionatedkitten Says:
4 July 2009 at 1:43 pm.
One is acting within the bounds of the laws, and the other is not. You could argue that laws, in any society, are meant to maintain the status quo – i.e. keep the dominating classes dominant, and keep the subsurvient classes subsurvient. Or to to paraphrase the Marquis de Sade: Laws were put in place to prevent the weak from taking back by force what the strong have taken through guile.
There’s an interesting and comical essay by Karl Marx (I unfortunately don’t remember the title, but I’m sure you could find it with a little research) in which he argues that if people were to somehow become perfectly honest from one day to the next, that would be a catastrophe for capitalist society. Think about it: Policemen, judges, lawyers, security personnel, and all other people whose purpose it is to limit transgressions would suddenly be out of a job. All those whose duties invole keeping accounts to make sure nobody is robbing anybody else would also be out of a job. Those who make prison bars, alarm systems, bankers who ensure transactions are according to the rules, etc…, all out of a job. Most political debate would be unecessary because they all involve disputes that suppose some amount of bad faith, etc… Marx claims the results would be an economic crash the likes of which the world has never seen.
Another philosopher who examined the question was Michel Foucault. His “Discipline and Punish” is an exploration of how different society view the role of the discipliarian (the police officer, the prison guard, the judge, etc…) and his counterart (the criminal, the transgressor, the witch, etc…) and how they profess to uphold the social order against all these threats to it. It’s quite an interesting read, and reevaluates a lot of assumptions on social roles and status.
For my part, I agree with you that legal and moral are not synonymous. Prostitution is illegal in a lot of places. But whose the victim? By sending that world underground, are we not encouraging more violence to creep in it? On the other hand, a company executive can deny employees their severance pay on bankruptcy, to protect the investors, but neglect to forego his own, much higher severance. It is legal, but it appears to me to be appalingly immoral.
Generally speaking, the exploiter (to use your own term) that operates outside the law, however, is generally not as clever as the one that operates within the law. Gains for the criminal are smaller, more difficult to obtain, and carry the risk of punishment and alienation from society. It is generally easier to thread within the system, which is why most people do.
But whether it is necessarily moral is another question entirelly.
curious connie Says:
4 July 2009 at 1:51 pm.
You can go back as far as historical evidence will allow and find that stealing is wrong and has always been punished whenever possible. If a bank robber can execute such a flawless plan then he is smart enough to get an honest job and earn the money without the consequences of committing an illegal act. The business owner creates jobs. That in turn creates a need for housing, stores, gas stations, schools, etc. All of that creates more jobs. The Bible says it’s wrong, every country has laws against it.
leebech56 Says:
4 July 2009 at 3:59 pm.
if you plant a garden ,and your neighbor is a deadbeat looser, to lazy to plant,he feels that the world owes him everything ,would you tolerate his actions?nothing is gained by doing nothing………..as far as ethically,just a mear guideline that mankind has imposed on it’s self, governed by people elected to govern such.just a double edge sword
Mr.Wizard Says:
7 July 2009 at 4:10 am.
The difference is Justice.
A trade is defined as an exchange of goods and or services by mutual consent and to mutual benefit.
The use of force (coercion) in any transaction on any level obliterates the definition of justice and ejects it from rational consideration.