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Termyn8or -> The NEXT moral question - theft/salvage (7/3/2009 9:50:41 PM)
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Hypothetical situation. You have a job counting money. This is not at a store, this is at a major place where hundreds of thousands of dollars are counted every day. Every bag, every package or whatever must come out exactly to the penny, and there are no excuses. You are actually recounting money to make sure the figures are accurate.
Then, you come across a twenty that looks odd, never seen it before and you decide to take it and replace it with a regular twenty of your own. The tally is correct. Later you find, for axample that it is a silver certificate and worth many times it's face value to collectors. So you then make sure that every day you have every denomination of currency and maybe even coin to do it again.
Now before you make a snap judgement and say "THAT'S STEALING", think about this. Such old bills etc. are destroyed by the federal reserve once they get there. And if you let it go, that money goes to a bank where they have counters that are on the lookout for such bills. When they find them all they have to do is fill out a form and slip in a note about it, why the tally isn't right. But in the end wealth, specifically in the form of that old note or coin, is destroyed. The net result of your action is nil, the tally comes out right, the boss is pleased, everything is hunky-dory. But you land a few bucks.
You may say "but still......" but that is negated by the fact that you KNOW for a fact that the intrinsic value, ergo the wealth involved here, will be utterly wasted. It benefits noone at all. Not any fellow Citizen, not even the damn government, it becomes a total waste. (research that if you want, I already know, anything that says "redeemable in lawful money" is destroyed immediately). In fact if you keep it you are saving the government, ergo the people money. The energy required to ignite and burn the old bill, as well as the resources used to print a new one.
Who has what has nothing to do with this morality, it doesn't matter if your boss wipes his ass with hundred dollar bills. I am talking about a more intrinsic morality. For example if working at one of the stores, I think it would be good to go to the boss and offer to do this and split it with him. But when you work at the clearinghouse or whatever to call it, what do you do ?
Or would it be more moral to just call it in as a suspected counterfeit bill and let them take it directly to the shredder ?
Maybe the question could be put as - if you gain, but noone, and I mean noone else loses, is it theft or is it more like....... salvage ?
I have other examples, and in one the supposed theft actually is beneficial to those who provided the "booty". We'll get to that. But in each case, there is no cost to anyone. In these cases can it be called theft ? IIRC in Ohio theft is defined as depriving for personal gain. If that is the case then it is not illegal. But then is it moral ? And just how close is any morality involved with law these days anyways ?
I used this as the most extreme example. Other examples are quite different.
T
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