>Very few people are actually in a situation where some burglar is in a position to ruin them to destitution. We aren't subsistence peasants, for whom the theft of a farm animal could have been the difference between life and starvation.
Don't about 60% of Americans live pay check to pay check? Though anecdotal what I tend to see while lurking is that HN is a bit of a bubble. There are plenty of people for whom the theft of their car, which they rely on completely because of the difficulty of living in many parts of the US without one can lead to financial ruin. And that is not mentioning the future potential of your life lost by any trauma associated with knowing your home is not safe and someone has broken into it, and potential income you will lose struggling with those thoughts or the anxiety of it.
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Don't about 60% of Americans live pay check to pay check?
It's way less than that, closer to 20%.
And if you're in that kind of financial situation, you won't be able to afford killing someone over property. If you're that precarious, even if you're eventually 100% cleared of all the legal questions, the costs/time spent on it will ruin you. That kind of poverty is highly correlated with... Having a lot of difficulties navigating the justice system.
That's fair. I've never been in such a situation, and hope that I never will. When my family faced a break in we were thankfully not home at the time, did not have much of value that could have been or was lost either. But I would still not pass moral judgement on someone in a similar situation who did happen to be at home and choose to protect their property. And I do find it sad that the legal system would potentially ruin their life over it.
Don't about 60% of Americans live pay check to pay check? Though anecdotal what I tend to see while lurking is that HN is a bit of a bubble. There are plenty of people for whom the theft of their car, which they rely on completely because of the difficulty of living in many parts of the US without one can lead to financial ruin. And that is not mentioning the future potential of your life lost by any trauma associated with knowing your home is not safe and someone has broken into it, and potential income you will lose struggling with those thoughts or the anxiety of it.