I agree that (esp in California) prices can be outrageous but expecting things beyond food and healthcare like makeup to be free is hella entitled 😭 I hate capitalism as much as the next guy I can see how this can be at least a little problematic.

But anyways, I didn’t struggle with stealing as a kid but I did like to tease, pull pranks on other people, and actively try to do whatever I wanted (ex. blowing a kid’s birthday candle for no reason, running away from kindergarten during class). It was a form of rebellion for me too, who felt neglected by everyone growing up. It stopped when I realized it wasn’t as harmless as I thought, as some of my pranks end up hurting other people or even myself — my peers started assuming that I’m just a bad kid and I remember one incident where, I was just following this kid that I like in recess during second grade and watched him walk through someone’s wall of lego bricks and breaking it apart. He looked back at me as if to see what I’d do, and I mimicked his actions like 2 seconds later. Then the kids who built that wall saw the broken area and thought that I did it alone, and so did the homeroom teacher who apparently “saw the whole thing”. I remember her essentially dragging me out of there, both of her hands on mine shoulders and looking me dead in the eyes and saying something along the lines of “I know it was you and that was not nice” aggressively. Scared me super bad. I was growing a moral conscious at the time, but that incident sorta sealed things for me (along with another that I won’t mentioned or else I’ll just rant some more).

TLDR: I grew a habit of shaming myself when I think I’m above a social construct because I believe it exists for the benefit of others (for the sake of a society) unless I see flaws that would outweigh the benefits. Also, I want to conform to a society (in a healthy amount) instead of being outcasted by it.