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The tab is "only" 40 to 50 billion
dollars in the Unüed States alone.
Fully 70 percent of the American
population are part-time or full–
time white-collar (or blue-collar)
thieves. There are "on ly." by rough
cstimates. 75 million shoplifting in –
cidcnts " in the land of the free a nd
th e home of the brave" every year.
Nobody wants to face
the ug01.fact
that the vast majority of U.S. ci ti–
zens are out right thieve who break
the eighth of God's Ten Command–
ments with utter impunity.
But let's not leave out the United
Kingdom. Escalating white-collar
crime reaches right across the Atlan–
tic to the British Isles. A recent re–
port from
The Guardian
s ta ted:
" British retailers are getting rather
hysterical about theft from shops.
Recently the retailers and the secu–
rity companies have formed local
committees and a national As ocia–
tion for the Prevention of Theft in
Shop . The focus of these organiza–
tions is per uading magistrates. par–
ents. teachers and customers that
rhey musr do somelhing ro conlrol
shop rhe.ft"
(David Wainwright ,
"High Street Living,'' Decembcr
9,
1976).
The white-collar rip-olf is
a
thorn
in the ftesh to every profession un–
der the sun. More than
80
percent of
trucking industry shipment losses
are caused
nor
by gun-toting hijack–
ers and professional thieves. but by
employees of the shipper. the motor
carrier. or others having some kind
of access to the lading.
You name the profession. we've
got the statistics: the transportation
industry sulfers losses to the tune of
$1.5
billion per annum; 75 percent
of all auto insurance claims are ex–
cessively padded. according to re–
cent estimates (these are mostly
claims by the average American
motorist): the IRS admits to losses
of upwards of $6 billion due to un–
reponed taxable income: enough
food is stolen from the nation's su–
permarkets to feed everybody in
San Francisco and Boston for a
year, accord ing to one security con–
su ltan!. 1 cou ld go on and on, but 1
think you get the point.
And as the saying goes: "Without
grease you can't do business in
many countries." Many American
and Japanese businessmen in one
16
There is an inextricable,
unbreakable, totally
binding interrelationship
between loving God and
loving neighbor, and there
is no greater irony
than for a hypocritical
human being to claim
to do one while he is
obviously completely
omiHing the other.
Far Eastern cou ntry routinely add
ten percent to thcir operating costs
to cover gra.fr!
Recen! newspaper
headlines have been rife wi th stories
of bribes, payolfs. "donations." gi fts
and kickbacks which "absolutely
have to" be written into the cost of
doing business abroad.
The lncredible Average Employee
Security experts te ll
us
that shop–
lil't ing, as bad as it is, is responsible
for only
25
percent of theft from
retail stores. J-l ere is an amazing sta–
tistic! You can chalk up the balance
- the remaining 75 percent - to
dishones1. 1/lieving employees!
ln
New York City. at least 1.000 retail
businesses go bankrupt every year
beca use of employce theft!
Norman Jaspan, a noted consul–
tan! on security problems, stated that
one of his studies showed that 70
percent ofstock shrinkage was dueto
employee
malpracrice
(a polite word
for stealing). 15 percent to shop–
lifting. the rest to clerical errors.
John T. Lynch, head of one of the
nation's biggest investment a nd
securi ty organizations. had this to
say about increasing employee
crime: "Employee crime is increas–
ing at about 20 percent ayear....
1t
could be anybody from the custo–
dian to the presiden! - and sorne–
times both... .''
That reminds me of a passage in
the book of Jeremiah: "For from the
least of them even unto the greatest
of them every one i
given
10
cov–
eiOusness ..
. "
(Jer. 6: 13). Cov–
etousness by its nature is a mental
act that always precedes the physi-
cal act of depriving someone else of
his prívate property.
Stealing is a moral sickncss that
ha permeated our entire Western
socicty.
lt
knows no economic stra–
tum, no scx. no race. no color. and
lamentably, no creed.
lt
wou ld be–
come so dcbi litating to our peoplcs
that the God who gave us our fan–
tastic national wealth caused this
scripture to be repeated in the same
book of Jcrcmiah: "For
every one
from the least even unto the
g~catest
is given to covetousness ..." (Jcr.
8: 10).
"Every one"
means
1he 1•asl
mc{joriry!
But sorne would say: "We're
God's people. We' re churchgoing
fo lk. We attend regularly at least on
Christmas and Easter. We can't be
all
rhar
bad !"
God asks a simple question: "Will
ye
steal.
murder, and commit adul–
tery. and wear falsely ... and come
and stand before me in this house.
which i called by my name. and
say.
We are delivered ro do al/ rhese
abominarions?"
(Jer. 7:9- 10.)
Worsh iping of God and stea ling
just don't go together!
At a Military Base
During my naval service.
1
was in
the security department on a naval
air ba e. Our job was manifold. Wc
had to watch the naval personncl
and the civil-service employees. who
would stca l tools, parts. coppcr tub–
ing. electrical wiring. and almost
anything of value. Workers within a
motor-pool compound would drivc
their trucks near the fence. toss over
pilfered objects. and then under
cover of darkness attempt to re–
trieve them.
Tools came out of the gate under
hubcaps, undcr seats. in trunks. in–
side workcr's toolboxes or taped un–
der the hood. Every gate guard
knew he cou ld detect only a small
portion of the goods stolen each
year. The loss in dollars was monu–
mental - typical of every military
base on ea rth .
The Simple Commandment
Many of our peoples don't seem to
understand that
s1ealing constilutes
a crime agains1 God and man!
Th e
simple economic cost is astronomi–
cal. 1-I idden in the price of all the
goods and services the average fam-
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1977