Martin stirring the pot on children's savings (again)

Malthusian

jameseonline said:

There's also poopy child savings accounts

My four year old would definitely want that one. Know your customers ;-) 

On topic: Is it pushing the idea of theft? I would say yes, kind of.

Firstly, there's the way the question is phrased. You can't "withdraw" someone else's money. 

Secondly, Lewis is tampering with the pitch by providing a justification to steal the money but no justification for why it might not be OK. A neutral way to phrase the question would be "If parents are struggling with high interest debt, is it OK to steal money they'd previously put in their four year old's savings to reduce their debt? Or is it always wrong to put your own interests above your child's?" Note that unlike Lewis I've given rationales for both viewpoints.

Thirdly, although Lewis can't control the responses (although he has influenced them), the fact that the thieves outnumber the non-thieves by a factor of 430% at time of writing is a clear justification for going along with their view. People are highly susceptible to majority opinion. "If everyone else says it's OK then it must be OK."

artyboy said:

Martin might as well say it's ok to nick food from the supermarket if you're hard up and hungry. 

Welp, now we know what tomorrow's Twitter poll will be.

A lot of people would say that is OK, and if I phrased a poll correctly I will bet you five pounds out of my kid's Junior ISA that I could get a majority on a Twitter poll to say it's OK. 

I will also bet you his favourite teddy bear that two weeks later I could get a differently phrased Twitter poll to say it's not OK. 

"If you're starving and seconds away from renal collapse then blah blah blah blah..." "Is theft ever justified or should people take responsibility for blah blah blah blah blah..."

Sg28

I think the police should start prosecuting for this sort of criminal behaviour.

Most of those theives in the comments on that FB poll should literally be in JAIL.

MeteredOut

Sg28 said:

I think the police should start prosecuting for this sort of criminal behaviour.

Most of those theives in the comments on that FB poll should literally be in JAIL.

Do you really think that?

I did LOL at the thought of the police contacting Morag, 43, from Colchester, because she admitted on FB that she took £2 from her daughters piggy bank

Malthusian

If you can have your collar felt for "non crime hate speech" such as posting pictures of political stickers on Facebook, why not? 

(At the risk of taking hyperbole literally: we're not really talking about a few quid out of a piggy bank, we're talking about smashing the piggy bank to pay off the parent's debts so they can run them up again.)

boingy

I think it's fine to take the money but only if you sell the kids on eBay afterwards. It gets rid of the evidence and the liability in one fell swoop. 
And it will save you a whole shedload of money and hassle in future years.