SPATA, Greece (AP) — In an olive grove on the outskirts of Athens, grower Konstantinos Markou pushes aside the shoots of new growth to reveal the stump of a tree — a roughly 150-year-old specimen, he said, that was among 15 cut down on his neighbor’s land by thieves eager to turn it into money.
Because it’s easier to make money when you steal and have no costs than it is to build an orchard and work it.
Do you think the Mafia was just like “we’ll stop doing crime when we’re not poor anymore?”
If I leave a $50 bill on the table at a cafe or the library and go to the bathroom it’s not going to be there when I get back, someone will have taken it. It’s not because they were poor, it’s because someone could do so without consequences.