OT: Moral Question

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

Just posted this on my twitter but thought I would here, too.

If you were contemplating robbing a bank and had the following guarantees, would you do it?

1. Minimum take is $1,000,000.
2. You were guaranteed to never be caught.
3. Nobody in the robbery process would be hurt or killed.

Bonus question #1...If your answer is no, then what price point would change your mind? $10,000,000? $50,000,000? $100,000,000?
Bonus question #2...Would a set of circumstances change your mind such as family is hungry or need money for a medical procedure for a sick family member?

 

[dorndawg]

Wouldn't it be easier to simply bribe the Mississippi governor and get welfare funds?

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Do I get to pick the bank?

Am I also immune to any tax issues associated with the windfall?

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

Do I get to pick the bank?

Am I also immune to any tax issues associated with the windfall?

I can't imagine reporting bank robbery funds on your W2 so no taxes.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

No. No price point matters. You can't actually starve in America if you are willing to go get help and I can't imagine a case where a medical need couldn't be addressed but family member living/dying would change things.

 

[Crazy Cotton]

Similar in some ways to the "Heinz dilemma" from Kohlberg's studies of moral development, particularly with bonus question #2. You can check your answers here if you want to stage your level of moral development, at least according to Kohlberg.

A woman was on her deathbed. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's laboratory to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?


​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_dilemma

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

 

[dorndawg]

I can't imagine reporting bank robbery funds on your W2 so no taxes.

Yes, the IRS does require people to report income from stolen property and illegal activities.

https://www.verifythis.com/article/...ties/536-9894cd64-cb03-4ef9-89f3-7fc4536d4853

 

[GloryDawg]

Wouldn't it be easier to simply bribe the Mississippi governor and get welfare funds?

Considering the law suit it may not be as simple.

 

[dorndawg]

Nice try, Sixpacker cop!

 

[johnson86-1]

Just posted this on my twitter but thought I would here, too.

If you were contemplating robbing a bank and had the following guarantees, would you do it?

1. Minimum take is $1,000,000.
2. You were guaranteed to never be caught.
3. Nobody in the robbery process would be hurt or killed.

Bonus question #1...If your answer is no, then what price point would change your mind? $10,000,000? $50,000,000? $100,000,000?

There is no amount of money that could convince me to sacrifice my morals.

Bonus question #2...Would a set of circumstances change your mind such as family is hungry or need money for a medical procedure for a sick family member?

If I had, like a bad hangnail or something, and I thought $10,000,000 would help and I was guaranteed to not get caught, then yea, I don't see how I'd have any choice but to steal the money.

 

[dorndawg]

Considering the law suit it may not be as simple.

 

[BoomBoom.sixpack]

Just posted this on my twitter but thought I would here, too.

If you were contemplating robbing a bank and had the following guarantees, would you do it?

1. Minimum take is $1,000,000.
2. You were guaranteed to never be caught.
3. Nobody in the robbery process would be hurt or killed.

Bonus question #1...If your answer is no, then what price point would change your mind? $10,000,000? $50,000,000? $100,000,000?
Bonus question #2...Would a set of circumstances change your mind such as family is hungry or need money for a medical procedure for a sick family member?

Bonus Question 3: instead of a bank, the one robbed is a criminal who acquired the money illegally and immorally, but he'll never be caught or punished.

 

[dorndawg]

Bonus Question 3: instead of a bank, the one robbed is a criminal who acquired the money illegally and immorally, but he'll never be caught or punished.

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

Yes, the IRS does require people to report income from stolen property and illegal activities.

https://www.verifythis.com/article/...ties/536-9894cd64-cb03-4ef9-89f3-7fc4536d4853

But I doubt very many are lining up to do so.

 

[dorndawg]

But I doubt very many are lining up to do so.

Right, literally zero - it's just another charge they can tack on if you really piss off the federales.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

But I doubt very many are lining up to do so.

If the income is enough to support a lavish lifestyle, Smart criminals do. Dumb criminals don't.

But through a cash based business and reported as such. Money laundering 101

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

$1mil not life changing and can be obtained by most, just by maxing out a 401k from age 35 to 60.

$10mil get's in the category of life changing, but I'd feel better about $50mil.

 

[Hot Rock]

I don't believe people that say they wouldn't ever steal have ever been really hungry or desperate. It's much easier to say I wouldn't steal when all your needs have always been met your entire existence. Even starving college kids could have gone home.

I don't mean wants. I mean actually have had a meal that day and had a place to sleep in doors with a plan for a better future. Food and shelter are your basic necessities, when you don't have them, you start doing some different things. Steal a million? Maybe not, but a few bites of food, damn right.

 

[dorndawg]

nm

 

[dorndawg]

$1mil not life changing and can be obtained by most, just by maxing out a 401k from age 35 to 60.

$10mil get's in the category of life changing, but I'd feel better about $50mil.

 

[Slow Natives]

Bonus Question 3: instead of a bank, the one robbed is a criminal who acquired the money illegally and immorally, but he'll never be caught or punished.

Wouldn't we call that person a dirty cop?

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Isn't the punchline "We've already established you're a *****. Now we are just negotiating"

 

[thekimmer]

No I would not do it.

Just posted this on my twitter but thought I would here, too.

If you were contemplating robbing a bank and had the following guarantees, would you do it?

1. Minimum take is $1,000,000.
2. You were guaranteed to never be caught.
3. Nobody in the robbery process would be hurt or killed.

Bonus question #1...If your answer is no, then what price point would change your mind? $10,000,000? $50,000,000? $100,000,000?
Bonus question #2...Would a set of circumstances change your mind such as family is hungry or need money for a medical procedure for a sick family member?

There is no price point that would change my mind.

The second question is harder to answer but I am not going to say no but I would have to be pretty desperate to do it.

 

[thekimmer]

Bonus Question 3: instead of a bank, the one robbed is a criminal who acquired the money illegally and immorally, but he'll never be caught or punished.

So if you take it and keep it under those circumstances you become a criminal too. So I would take it and either return it or if the rightful owner could not possibly be found I would accept it only as legally found money.