Why do we need morals?

[Darkstar]

If no one thought there was anything wrong with theft, then yes, there would be lots of theft.

If no one thought of theft as wrong then it would no longer properly be theft. Whether patterns of exercise of control over property would change, perhaps somewhat, but probably not as much as we in our theft-defined-societies would expect, where doing such gains you an unfair advantage.

You have an excellent point. I did some thinking since my last post and I came to a similar conclusion. If you live in a communist society, it isn't that theft is acceptable, but in that the concept of theft itself is simply nonexistent. You can't steal someone's property if they have no property. So, I suppose, if one said there were a society in which theft were not immoral, I would think they were mistaken, and that it only appears this way because theft is not possible.

The reason that such a difference is possible is that property is not an objectively valuable thing. Humans aren't born with property (well, maybe an inheritance, but that is beside the point), and humanity survived its early days without such a concept (as most, if not all other animals do). Of course, just because something is natural/unnatural does not make it right or wrong, but because property is not an inherent part of people. The objects may be objectively valuable to serve a certain ends, but that does not necessarily provide enough of an objective basis to say that property is a human right.

The three unalienable rights were life, liberty, and property, but the last was changed to pursuit of happiness. Life is something all people have, and if you have no value for that, morality falls apart immediately. Valuing people in any way other than slaves ultimately leads to the other two (not property).

I know I never put these things as succinctly as you, so sorry if my post doesn't actually make any sense.