Hacker News Reader

Comment by sanguy | Hacker News Reader

When we have politicians endorsing to defund the police, riot, and use violence and terror to get their way what do we expect?

Stealing is now perfectly acceptable as it's just distribution of wealth.

View on HN

You're misdiagnosing the problem. The problem isn't that the police are less able to do their job and thus more people are able to get away with stealing food. The problem is that people are not able to afford food.

> defund the police

Yes. If [0] is a point of debate, we need to seriously reform the police system, and defunding/demilitarizing is a good starting point.

> When we have politicians endorsing ... riot, and use violence and terror

Source? Encouraging protests is not the same as encouraging riots, let alone violence/terror

[0] https://www.npr.org/2020/12/07/943829901/police-in-ohio-say-...

I don't understand your position. Are you upset at politicians or the community that was okay with letting people starve?

If you are starving, stealing food is at the very least perfectly acceptable, and many would say just. I'm not aware of any ethical frameworks, even the most hardcore libertarian ones, which would claim otherwise.

The point is you don't need to steal food to survive. You just need to go to one of food banks or shelters that will help. I volunteer at one of them. Lots of really good down on their luck people; and they are busier that in the past due to COVID job losses.

Those stealing are ones with something to prove. We recently had a situation here at the Giant where two adults were stealing ice cream and when the staff tried to stop them they were seriously beat up. When has ice cream become a necessity to survive and something worth beating another human over?

The issue we have lost our moral compass in this country and it will not solve itself.

Food banks and shelters might be in good shape wherever it is that you live, but in many parts of the country they’re stretched to and beyond their capacities. Food banks are simply not a scalable solution to poverty. No form of charity is. Government aid programs are a proven solution to getting resources (like food) into the hands of folks in need.

As to your argument that poor people are morally corrupt, it’s laughable, below contempt, and not worth responding to. Someone is morally bankrupt, but it ain’t the poor.

My point was that the poor are not the corrupt. They need to be helped. If the shelters are stretched we need to ensure those shelters get the funding they need to cover the demand. We need to treat these people down on their luck with dignity and help them get back on their feet.

The corrupt are those with other motivations beyond survival.

The rich and powerful have lost their moral compass, yes. The way to fix it is for the state to partly seize their wealth and partly deficit spend, and transfer all of it to the poor.

And whereas people used to get help from wider family or community organizations, socialists first helped destroy those structures and now teach to steal what you need or ask state to do that on your behalf.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com