Several of us on a music production related forum spent days arguing with one 20something about how piracy of music software was wrong legally and morally.
The hoops that guy jumped through were mindblowing in justifying his actions. It was all about him and if he wanted it, he would take it. No one was physically hurt or financially harmed he said. Even people who lost jobs programming the very software he pirated due to the companies going belly up over...piracy...could not convince him otherwise. He wanted it and that’s all the justification he needed.
Right and wrong no longer exist for many of the population. It’s that simple.
it's due to the rise of big governments and corporations. you don't hit a person when you steal -- unlike say if you steal from the neighborhood shop, you steal from Mr. Jones, but when you steal from a corp, or don't pay taxes, you steal from some formless entity. It becomes "ok"
Of course it doesn’t exist for them. There are no consequences to him for any wrongs he may do. Insofar as there may be consequences to others, near all such events occur to people who don’t exist to him, no different than watching a movie character suffer (brief amusement, followed by apathy and swift amnesia).