Are we paying for what others steal?

I think so.

Costs from shoplifting "shrinkage" at big retailers, and small ones, are passed on to consumers until consumers cannot pay them anymore, and then stores close from bankruptcy.   

We see that a lot.

Perhaps the government will just have to find a way to make everything free for all. 

Shoplifting increases the cost of goods for all people.  

The thief does not “stick it it to the man” rather the thief sticks it to the neighbors. 

Stores will be shuttered in proportion to the level of theft and if the trend keeps going, then at a certain point all stores will be forced out of business leaving people to pay more to have food and goods delivered only to be possibly stolen in the mail rooms of apartment buildings or on the doorsteps of those who cannot afford to be home and who cannot afford to hire personal assistants. 

Increasing shoplifting is a perfect example of an unsustainable activity despite the widespread recognition that sustainability is key to having a world in which all can thrive. 

I live in a suburb of Washington D.C. and on June 26, 2023 Giant Food’s President Ira Kress told Stephanie Ramirez of Channel 5 news:

”We’re not a bank, we don’t have vaults, I don’t want to create an environment where everything is locked up in the stores. But I do not see today anything occurring which is going to significantly impact positively, the escalation that’s occurring in either theft or violence. I welcome the conversations.” 

The Marshall Project on Feb. 27, 2023 quotes mayor of New York City, Eric Adams saying, “What we can’t do is allow repeated offenders to make a mockery of our criminal justice system, and repeatedly, we are losing chain stores that are closing down,” answering a question about organized retail crime during a recent budget hearing in Albany.

In the 1996 novel The Story of B by Daniel Quinn a character uses the how to boil a frog metaphor.  Like many attention-grabbing images, the frog metaphor goes way back and yet so many problems keep gradually getting worse such as shoplifting. We should be aware too of the Overton Window theorized by James Overton where unthinkable shifts to radical then shifts to acceptable and then sensible where such a policy then becomes law.  

Whether or not policy makers should try to shift the window of peoples’ perceptions on purpose to pass laws, we need to recognize that unchecked negatives, such as shoplifting, in and of themselves, will shift the window to where people accept and find sensible what was previously unacceptable such as higher prices, along with each and every citizen being fully armed and having to commute and shop in packs to protect themselves from lawless bandits.

We already are seeing that the labels like Developed versus Undeveloped for nations carry less, if any, meaning. Over here in the states, we now we recognize there is more violence versus less violence, and less respect for community versus more respect for community. What a descent.

Community is where people can go about their lives without fear.  Where fear is prevalent, there is no community.

On August 8 it was reported that D.C. Councilmember Trayon White called for the National Guard to step in, saying: "I submit to you today that today now is worse than it was then … Why? Because I've never seen this onslaught of violence prey on our women and kids…We are clearly in a war zone.” 

Will we move, despite much difficulty, to a community of shared mutual respect or will the response to injustices lead to more injustices until only those who can afford to live behind their custom-made fortifications where all they need or want is delivered to their gates will be in a safe haven from the war zone?  

Image: Screen shot from ChiTownCrimeChasers video, via Fox32 video, via YouTube