Why do we need morals?

[ideologue08]

Once one is grown, he has the means to do and act as he pleases.

LOL, no, "he" doesn't. You don't even have the means to lift your arm above the level of your shoulder if someone else doesn't want you to. It's a pleasant fiction though, isn't it?


@Reasons that stealing is wrong.

One could imagine many, but I'm personally very partial to the notion that I do not wish to have my things stolen, and that I do not have any solid ground to compel another to do (or not do) what I would not do (or do) myself. Or, if you prefer, we could go the utilitarian route and say that theft makes us both immediately unhappy, and in the long term makes our society unstable, and should therefore be curtailed.

We could do this all day though couldn't we? Give reasons why stealing is "wrong". I use the former for now (since my children are very young...but I'll likely mention the latter sometime -when they're older and hopefully no longer require reinforcement - more along the lines of elaboration and exploration).

Neither of those two reasons are adequate though, they do not sufficiently explain why stealing is wrong, it's not very convincing at all.