• Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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    5 days ago

    The actual answer is that in western culture, it’s generally taken as a given that stealing is wrong. It’s in the 10 commandments.

    So is “coveting”.

    Hoarding is applied coveting, in the same way that engineering is applied physics.

    And for a long time, we did indeed, understand that coveting was wrong. We implemented actual, progressive taxation to prevent it. We used to have a 91% top-tier income tax rate. We had that rate in the most prosperous decades of US history.

    • Windex007@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      You’re not wrong.

      I just don’t think that’s part of the western experience of things so “plain” that they need not be said.

      Someone even with severely impeded mental capacity could still snap back an answer to “is stealing wrong”. Like, legitimate dementia.

      “Is hoarding applied covetus?”, probably won’t get the same snappy answer.

      It’s just in a different league in terms of being ingrained in us so deeply we don’t even realize it.