Getting money on the road, do ethics matter?

[Deleted member 2626]

pick pocketing . . i dont know. . Ill never do it but anyway, yeah mmmmicahel I found steady everyday work for a lesbian dentist from walking around and asking for work. the first time I worked for her I worked a few hours, got paid cash and a free sub for dinner and she let the dog hang out. then she gave me steady work at her dentist office. It turned sour kind of but was a neat experience and money producer

 

[notOK]

Ain't a damn thing wrong with a con, cause like P.T.Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute. People wanna blow cash everyday on scratch offs, but only the gov't gets that low-hanging fruit? Fuck that noise, says I! I always got dice and they ain't even loaded usually.

Slanging random bits of junk with a story, no harm in it. Tend not to steal shit, but I won't deny jacking a preg test to shut a gal the fuck up. But I don't steal, even from corporations, cause I can always find a way to get mine. Way I figure, I'm a dadgum millionaire, just having a buncha folks hold a little bit of my scratch til I need it. Likewise, the cash in my pocket is some other cat's so I gotta throw it back to 'em, else the whole cipher implodes.

 

[Corinne]

i steal water to prevent dehydration

 

[Traveler]

i steal water to prevent dehydration

Where do you steal it from?

 

[Corinne]

public buildings and houses

 

[Kim Chee]

This thread is entitled: getting money on the road, do ethics matter?

I'm sure you have experiences to share which are actually about money.

If not, thanks.

 

[Kim Chee]

Ma'am, @Corinne, kindly accept your licks for not staying on topic here.
If you'd like to discuss how you steal water, perhaps you can start your own thread.

Your understanding is appreciated.


***edit***
I apologize...

I should have mentioned water....
Physical space,,,,
Oxygen...
Tardedness...

 

[Anagor]

Ma'am, @Corinne, kindly accept your licks for not staying on topic here.

I fail to see how her post was off topic. Okay, the title speaks about money only. But you wrote: [...] notice people who don't get their money, food, gas, drugs or clothes [...]
Okay, tap water is very cheap. But so is a pack of ramen for a company like Wal-Mart.
Anyway. Ethics do always matter, in my opinion. Isn't important if you are a homebum or a millionair. But ethics is a very personal concept. What is ethical for me is perhaps unethical for you and vice versa.
I was never in the position (yet) to have to steal or to beg for money. So I theorize here, I admit. I wouldn't have a problem to panhandle, fly a sign, etc. (But that's in no way unethical, I think). When it comes to stealing or scamming ... I wouldn't do scamming and I would steal only if I have to and the consequences for the person/company I steal from would be low.
Example: stealing a can of soup from a large supermarket when you are really hungry and no other option is available isn't unethical in any way I think. Stealing a can of soup from another guy on the road who also doesn't have much more definitely is.
I wouldn't steal money to get food, gas, drugs or clothes. I would search for alternatives to get what I need (asking, dumpster diving, etc.) and if there were no alternative I'd try to steal only what I really need (like a can of soup while starving or a jacket while freezing). And I'd always see that I steal from someone who can easily cope with it.
I very much agree to the words uttered by a catholic cardinal after world war two in Germany (Cologne):

We live in times where the single individual, in his need, ought to be allowed to take what he needs to preserve his life and health, if he cannot obtain it through other means, work or bidding.

Cardinal Frings is eternalised in the Kölsch language with the word "fringsen" (verb, literally translates as "to Frings") which became synonymous for "stealing food" and other low-value consumables out of need. The expression dates back on his New year's Eve sermon which he held on 31 December 1946 in the St. Engelbert church in Cologne-Riehl, in which he referred to the looting of coal trains and the bad supply situation in the grim winter.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Frings)

 

[Kim Chee]

I apologize...

I should have mentioned water....
Physical space,,,,
Oxygen...
Tardedness...

I left out some of the obvious things are often taken for granted. Stealing (a drink?) of water shouldn't be confused with things which may or may not be ethical. It is vital for human life and hopefully there is no question of ethics in obtaining H2O to live.

...or maybe I'm being simply too controlling and should ignore apparent off topicness.

 

[Deleted member 9462]

i would never steal from an individual but out of curiousity, what is the shell game?

my ethics won't allow me to fly a sign unless i am busking or providing something in return. i like to take art with me and sell it wherever i go too!

was thinking about gas canning for my trip out west but will probably only ask truckers because they usually have a company card.

 

[Dameon]

The shell game is one of the oldest cons. Three shells, one of them hides a pea, and you bet the mark they can't guess the right one. Mostly done with cards these days. Of course, the mark always loses, but a shill in the audience makes it look like you can win.
Even if the mark realizes they've been duped, they'll walk away $200 poorer rather than acknowledge they were dumb enough to get conned.

 

[Anagor]

Yeah, and I don't understand how you can be taken in by that ...

Especially since it's (as you mentioned) one of the oldest cons and there are constantly warnings about this in television (around holiday time).
But I think it's like that:

Left side guy says like: "You are millionst passant. You here enter your credit card number to getting an iPad,"
Right side guy says (edit:thinks): "Seems legit"

 

[Cirno9]

Personally I usually go to my homebase to make money and hit the road again, but sometimes I DO fuck up and blow it all and I have stolen from major retailers for things like food and shit I need, or think I need. I can con but I have not in a long while, I am not scared of jail time or any of that noise but just my inner voice tells me what a fuckin shit head I am for doing it. I am not opposed to selling the drugs I myself would take like MDMA, pot, or shrooms but anything other than that I villanize personally especially if the drug is known to cause severe addiction like heroin or cocaine. If I were desperate enough I might steal from a person but I would have to be close to dying for that to go down just for the simple fact I know what its like to go with out and if I am going with out why would I cause the same to another person unless they were a thief themselves? I guess its like "If I have nothing else at least I can still have my pride." but pride cant feed you so sometimes you might have to trade it in for some food.

 

[zea mays]

yeah I was just thinking of anarchist ethics tonight. This whole "steal from wallmart" thing seems pretty thin to me, just like polyamory can go from being "liberating" to "total shit show". Its fucking impossible to starve in a western city/country so the person who steals is not acting out of pure necessity. Unless they have checked all the dumpsters and there are no jobs or anyone to beg off of and they have just walked out of the desert, there is some amount of greed or laziness or thoughtlessness.

then again I live in Canada where the streets are paved with candy.

I dont knock stealing, dont think any less of people who do, and I always appreciate a good scam. Stealing, eating meat, driving cars, etc you can get very abstract and very annoyingly rational with these sets of ethics. I have just shoplifted so much life in my that it has messed with my inner moral compass. I think its because creating exceptions has blurred my sense of right and wrong and somehow I slippery sloped into doing other unethical things, and now I feel like there is no truth or sincerity anywhere. But being poor is not always an excuse. No one steals in Africa or Mexico but politicians.

 

[zea mays]

As for the line "I steal from walmart because walmart steals from communities, emplyees, etc", do you realy want to use the same tactics as something you hate?

 

[Dameon]

God forbid rationality should have anything to do with ethics...

And nobody in Mexico or Africa steals from each other? Are you serious? What world do you live in? Look up the accounts of banditry in both. Shit, if you built a Wally world in Mexico or most of Africa, it would be empty of merchandise within an hour. Heh, you go down to Mexico and tell them that stealing from a multi-billion dollar company is a slippery slope.