Is Stealing Ever Justifiable?  

I don't believe stealing is ever justifiable. Even when your in hard times there's always a way to find the help you need.

hi laisse,

that's a faire question...

the justifiability of stealing (or any act) depends on the perspective...

given all his priorities and conditions, it obviously was justifiable for the fellow you described...

whether his judgement was correct is another matter - the ethics or the morals of the situation are entirely separate from the issue of motivation and necessity.

a democratic community will theoretically establish laws based on principles that work to keep things working in the way that the community wants them to work.

the capitalist model doesn't always work to every individual's benefit, though. in fact, some people can easily get chewed up and spat out like so much refuse - and they do.

not much we can do except try to help people like you descibe in any other way we can. if the economic circumstances of some people force them to desperation, and the laws are a crock (which they often are) then it's back to individuals and the community - not to go around the laws or break them, but to try to compensate for the failings in the overall system.

of course, many people who enjoy prosperity and wealth won't be able to grasp the idea that some people are suffering hard times through no real fault of their own - or even that some people who are basically pretty hopeless and can't fend for themselves need and deserve a bit of help and support.

I'd say the overall economic model is deficient - capitalism is not the answer.

I live in Australia, where at least the homeless people are unlikely to die from exposure, given the generally benign climate.

It's different in the USA, where there's an awful lot of homeless people, despite the joys of freedom and democracy.

Capitalism is not the answer, in my view, nor is Communism, because it's just the other extreme - the little guy is still at the mercy of the rich.

BUT we have to work with what we've got.

We have to crank the handles of our system to keep it working, in a fashion, and make some extra effort to try to help out the people who are getting the short end of the stick.

On the Day of Judgement, each will be judged according to a different yard-stick than we're accustomed to. The fellow you describe might well be in a better position than others at that time (including you and me).

You did the right thing - and it's to your credit that it troubles you, because it shows that you still have the capacity to see the whole for what it is, outside of the "system" that we'd like to think has everything under control, but really is rather imperfect at best.