this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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My (unpopular?) solution is to make sure the rest of society isn't so desperate for food that they're willing to rob a robot.
In an unrelated suggestion, if youre in a grocery store and see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
As someone who works in a grocery store, most of the people I see stealing are stealing stuff like makeup or drinks and junk food, not necessities. And our regular thieves spend hundreds on cigarettes a week, while still stealing whatever they want because they know they’ll get away with it.
If you think about it’s easier to steal higher value items that have a good resale value, rather than a complete food shop.
Sure, some people steal out of more than necessity, whether that be drug addiction (which should also be fixed at the root) or other issues.
The fact is quite simple that the more we give people prospects then the more crime will go down.
Yeah, the cigarettes thing is a literal drug issue. The only thing that's different between that a fentanyl is the smokes are not criminalized.
We can't expect our thieves and impoverished to be exactly rational and raid the staples, especially as we've engineered junk food to appeal to impulsivity.
As for makeup I don't have an easy explanation, though makeup is expensive and currently we do expect people to wear it rather than get accustomed to what folks look like without it. I was going to guess it's fungible, but less so than brand-name laundry detergent. Tide is currency in the underground market.
But yes, while for young people there might be a thrill in the act of stealing over buying, ultimately, when we have the capacity to fulfill our needs without careful budgeting and compromise, we're glad to do things transactionally. Professional thieves struggle to make rent.