u/Dangime

There seems to be a lot of popularity in defending cases of shoplifting, particularly by the left. But let's take the case of a corporate giant like Walmart, which the left defends shoplifting from.

I would challenge you to tell me which items from Walmart don't fit into one of the two following categories:

1. Luxury Goods - Goods that, no matter how desperate an individual claims to be are disconnected from "survival" in an absolute sense.

2. Commodities: Goods that are priced not by corporate giants, but by supply and demand at the market level by a variety of participants.

If you steal from category 1, you're just a generic criminal, since you don't need luxury goods to survive. If you steal from category 2, you are not objecting to capitalism, or Walmart "profiting" off of goods, since the price is essentially dictated to Walmart by vast market forces beyond it's control. If it lowers it, they lose money on transport or labor, and shortages develop. If they raise it, they lose sales and profits. Walmart's net profits are 2-3%.

In other words, short of some magical sci-fi tech, the items at Walmart are as cheap as they could be while still keeping them available. Stealing them only forces Walmart to increase the prices to account for the losses and pushes your personal needs on to the backs of others, otherwise known as slavery.