> By contrast, Jimbo the night-shift line cook at Waffle House has significantly less margin for error. If he doesn't show up to work, he at best doesn't get paid and at worst gets fired. If he gets fired, he's now behind on his rent, plus he has to fix his car with money he doesn't have. He might need to take out a payday loan, or sell something important, or borrow money from family who is just as poor as he is.

This is in large parts because of the cruel society the US chose to build even though the economy is developed enough to support a less exploitative model. I’m not saying poverty and hard lives don’t exist outside the US, but being fired from your minimum wage job because you called in sick once which kickstarts a series of events which has a very real chance of making you become homeless and without health insurance is a uniquely US-specific thing.

Perhaps that makes "standing" one's "ground" towards thieves catharsis-by-proxy? ;)

There is much less recourse for having one's surplus labor "stolen," as it's normalized. Legally-sanctioned shootings could be the U.S. society's relief valve.

> Legally-sanctioned shootings could be the U.S. society's relief valve.

No, legally sanctioned shootings aren't a relief valve, they ratchet up social tension rather than relieving it.

On a grand scale, yes.

But on an individual scale, the tension is released for the individual.

In exchange for releasing the emotional pressure of one person, another dies, and many more are imbued with negative emotions.

Very fitting parallel for the greater whole: zero sum.

Even on an individual scale, I suspect it is only a short term amelioration that exacerbates the underlying problem in the long term.

The grand scale ratcheting-up effect is a result of processes that, while not narrowly focussed, most acutely apply to those associated with shootings.

> Very fitting parallel for the greater whole: zero sum

Its not zero-sum (if it were, the grand-scale effect would be neutral.)

Yes. It seems like there's a baseline tension in the U.S. from socioeconomic circumstances that doesn't allow for a long-term approach. It's like constantly being in survival mode, one happenstance from ruin (real or imagined).

As if the lower one's income, the closer one is to the heaping mass of natural inevitability: decay and death -- its gravity crushing.

> Its not zero-sum (if it were, the grand-scale effect would be neutral.)

I think I was referring to emotionally. There are so few great sources of positive emotion to tap into, that the zeitgeist is simply "take as much as you can for yourself, before it runs dry."

That in order to escape from "loss," you must create negative externalities and emotions -- no matter how small.

It feels cultural. There is no great basin of tradition and culture here; the positive emotions built off the backs of forefathers that sacrificed and endured negative emotion for the hope of a better tomorrow: missing.

Marxist fighting words like "stolen surpulus labour" have barely anything to do with the problem.

Protecting your property is an innate human tendency. I'm pretty sure even in a marxist utopia, I wouldn't shed a tear for home invaders getting shot.

or Jimbo is tempted to steal a catalyzer to avoid getting into a high interest debt spiral that ends in homelessness?

And this is also contributes to people deciding to steal catalytic converters to get by or get their fix.

> It's their livelihood.

But it's also not their actual life.

He might even resort to stealing catalytic converters to get by.

If it helps, in TX you don't need auto insurance, just liability or ability to pay, last time I checked.

My friend just had his catcon replaced. Was $1,800

I’m pretty sure any car equipped with a catalytic converter is still perfectly drivable if the catalytic converter is removed.

this is absolutely true, when you startup your car it will become immediately obvious because the engine exhaust sounds will be tremendous. Basically all those exhaust strokes of the engine pour out directly to the atmosphere never making their way to the muffler which muffles their sounds.

Right, but it won’t impact the livelihood of the victim which is the reason the person I am responding to has justified violence in response to catalytic converter theft. For what it’s worth I think people should be able to defend their property with force- but at least let’s be clear as to why.

Diesels with DPF systems will not operate correctly without cats. You will have 50-250 miles on DPF system error that you MUST get it fixed or the vehicle will go into a limp-in mode.

That’s true, but the vast, vast Majority of people getting their cats stolen are Honda Element and Toyota Prius owners.

yes but it wont pass an emissions test. And the repair can easily be $1,500 plus

So we’ve got a government that isn’t enforcing any sort of rule against catalytic converter theft but is also forcing us to pass an emissions test after someone steals my catalytic converter.

catalytic converter theft is already illegal. You want a government agent assigned to watch your car 24/7?

No, I want to be able to protect my catalytic converter.