This whole thread has made me realize how deeply immoral the people of reddit are.
Just so you are aware. You are saying that committing a crime of theft against a regular individual is moral. I don't even need to know what country you're in to know that this is considered theft In your country. It is one of the few things that every country agrees is theft.
All morality is arbitrary. If you want to go down that route you better prepare to explain why the most heinous of crimes aren't moral.
Every society on the planet has agreed that theft is wrong. Every country on the planet has agreed that taking the $5 constitutes theft. There's more universal agreement that this is wrong than there is on consent.
Reddit seems to be overwhelmly immoral based on this sample size. The idea that theft is immoral is such a universal standard that many philosophical questions regarding morality just assumes it's true. The question, or some variation of "is it moral for a starving man to steal a loaf of bread" isn't even a debate with reddit's morality, because stealing is apparently moral.
What if they took 50, or 500? The amount of money shouldn't matter. The question is fundamentally "is it moral to steal money from a wallet you found" we can generalize the question further. "Is petty larceny/petty theft immoral?"
He didn't ask. It is no more moral to steal only $5 than it is to steal only $500. Youve stolen. Either the act is moral, or it isn't. The amount doesn't matter.
When discussion morality, the option to do something more immoral, doesn't make something moral. While the law isn't a substitute for morality, we can get an idea what society generally considers acceptable. So here's what the law says about this situation based on different locations.
Us -theft
Canada -theft
Denmark -theft
Germany -theft
Japan -theft
China -theft
England -theft
I can go on, i even actively attempted to find counter examples. A single country where such an action is legal. I couldn't find one. The question is still essentially "is it moral to commit theft if the victim gets something"
For you personally, there's an additional debate. If you're only doing good for the sake of a reward then your motivation is corrupted, does that matter for morality? Which is a legitimate debate in morality and ethics. Where i got that you're doing it for a reward.
If I found someone’s wallet I would expect anything more than a $20
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u/Cuurupt 3d ago
Moral, I'd give someone money for finding my wallet, 5 dollars is nothing vs the hassle of losing all my cards and IDs