Why People Steal

Okay, I'm bored and I need to blog. The "idea" for this post came to me last night while I was trying to fall asleep. People steal because they don't want to pay for stuff. Or because they have major problems. That's a "duh." But the reason that stealing (especially music, video, and software piracy) is so common now isn't because most people are bad or because they don't have money, but because it is so EASY, compared to legally obtaining something. For example, I have a copy of Halo for the PC (as you know) that came from a copy that Cory bought. The reason I used Cory's CD wasn't to save the measly $12. Halo is a good enough game to pay $12 for it. I used Cory's CD for convenience. If I had bought it, I would have had to a) talk to my parents about buying it and b) wait for it to ship and arrive here. When I got it from Cory, he gave me the CD at school one day and I took it home and installed it. It took only a day, instead of a week. If I could have just gone on Amazon and hit "Purchase and Download," like on iTunes, I would have. Another example: I know people who have two steps for getting music. 1) They try to find it on iTunes. 2) They download it on Kazaa or similar. Why? Because it takes 10 minutes. The music industry is desperately searching for a way to end piracy. The solution: make music available legally in a matter that is as convenient as illegally downloading it. The cafeteria at IHMS is another good example. The way it is set up, you go in one door, come out another and then have to walk up to the serving line to pay. If you want to steal, you can just walk back out into the lunchroom. It is a bad situation where it is easier to steal than it is to do the right thing by buying something. Ahh, much better. That was a good rant.