Burglar shot and killed while escaping ruled justifiable.

[rrneck]

63. Do you kill people who cut you off in traffic?

At issue is not who started it, but the disparity of compensation. You spent a hundred hours to acquire a consumer product, and you demand an entire life in compensation.

If lethal force is an appropriate response for theft, should the penal code be changed to reflect that standard? Should the punishment for theft be the death penalty? Or should we simply hamstring his productivity and cut off a hand?

Granted, if he is stealing something upon which your survival depends, you might well be defending your life to stop him. And that's becoming more of a possibility in these troubled economic times. But then, those same economic conditions that might require you to need those goods to survive might push others to have to steal them for the same reason.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_dilemma

As it stands now, the vast majority of consumer goods that we own are not necessary for our survival. So how do you justify the legality of demanding a life for stealing them?