I didn't trivialise the crime. Fiddling your taxes & using the "blackmarket" is also theft. This theft requires the government to increase tax rates to cover the shortfall. The shopkeeper has to charge a higher price to cover this.Flixton blue said:CBlue said:No, you're the one saying that, but I agree, you are talking absolute bollocks.
Well, by trivialising the crime by saying, "Well, if everyone paid their taxes & didn't do backhanders or partake in the black market then it wouldn't have been 25 quid, it would have been a lot less", and then making the distinction with crimes which we "would morally not commit" then you are suggesting that thieving is not such a big deal.
I'm sure that, if a situation arose where your kids are dieing from starvation, & your only option of keeping them alive is stealing the food then, morally, you'd let them die. Or, would your compass change?
Theft is theft & it can be wrong (as it is here) but, for me, someone fiddling their taxes for a couple of grand a year is a little more deserving of my wrath than a couple of scrotes grabbing a few tinnies from a shop. But I appreciate that your moral compass may be different. Which is why this thread can only be a shouting match - no one's compass is going to change.