I have been listening all year to news reports of identity theft. Porch piracy. City, state, and federal governments being hacked into. The thieves are local hackers or from another country. What people don’t seem to understand is that the Internet made us a small world. We are all connected.
The thing is the Internet made the world smaller. But it also made everybody anonymous. You don’t have to look into the face of the person you steal from. Maybe a mother who bought a coat for her daughter who outgrew the one she had. She can’t afford to buy another coat.
Those big box stores that you steal from pass on the loss to all consumers, resulting in much higher prices for everything. It hurts the economy for everyone when milk is $10 a gallon.
The economy suffers when people are laid off because of piracy. Then everyone has to pay for Medicaid and unemployment for the laid off worker.
When the government is hacked, those million dollar losses are passed on to all citizens because there’s less money for social programs, such as free school lunches for kids and Social Security for the seniors and disabled population. It also means we have less money to send overseas for things such as food and medical supplies for the poor.
Think about that the next time you pat yourself on the back for your ingenuity. Because you just stole from your parents, your neighbor, your child. Look at them in the face, and tell yourself it doesn’t matter.
Happy holidays to all!
Deborah E. Joyce
Author of “Identity Theft: A Victim’s Search for Justice” (DB 103152)