My brother made $700 in 3 hours by sitting in front of a grocery store

My sixteen year old brother and two friends decided that they needed a little pocket money. They dressed in slacks or perhaps nice jeans and collared shirts. The three of them set up a table in front of a Safeway. The table had a jar on it. They draped a red cross they had fashioned over the edge of the table and sat behind it for three hours. They didn't say a word. No one asked them what they were going to do with the money. It was implied, and assumed.

At the end of the three hours, they packed up and went home, $700 richer.

Crises spawn gullibility.

The common man or woman does not question the connection between a signifier and what is conventionally signified by it.

If I have an opinion on my brother's action, it is this: many people want to help without knowing how. As far as these people know, they have given money to the Red Cross. There were no checks to write, no envelopes to mail, no time wasted out of anyone's day. They go home feeling better about themselves because they have had the chance to help. My brother was not only acting as an economic parasite, but also serving a useful social function. He was filling a need.

I am proud of him for this and many other things.

How does this apply?

Not only has the brother in question committed petty theft, but he's also managed to breach the Geneva Convention. Rather than federal trademark registration, the emblem of the Red Cross is protected by international humanitarian law, ratified in the US in 1905.

Section 706, Title 18, U.S. Criminal Code, reads as follows:

"Whoever wears or displays the sign of the Red Cross or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the fraudulent purpose of inducing the belief that he is a member of or an agent for the American National Red Cross; or

"Whoever, whether a corporation, association or person, other than the American National Red Cross and its duly authorized employees and agents and the sanitary and hospital authorities of the armed forces of the United States, uses the emblem of the Greek red cross on a white ground, or any sign or insignia made or colored in imitation thereof or the words "Red Cross" or "Geneva Cross" or any combination of these words--

"Shall be fined...or imprisoned..."

Your brother and friends are fundamentally undermining the humanitarian efforts of the Red Cross. The emblem exists to stop wounded soldiers and humanitarian workers being needlessly slayed. The Greek red cross represents much more than a single organization. It indicates to members of any devastated community that much needed help has arrived. Misusing the emblem irreversibly dilutes its meaning.

A man walks into a cigar store and points to a five cent cigar. He's dressed nicely, acts normally, and the clerk hands him the cigar. The man gives the clerk a five dollar gold coin, and the clerk gives the man $4.95 in change.

Except for one thing... that five dollar gold coin is actually a V-nickel (also known as a Liberty Head nickel that was gold-plated. The gent goes around and drops a lot of the gold-plated nickels until he's caught.

The man goes to trial, and is found not guilty.

How, you ask? The gent turns out to be a deaf mute. Some racketeers gave him the coins, and the gent went around buying nickel cigars. The racketeers got most of the take. The gent was found not guilty because he never spoke, just pointed to the nickel cigar. The clerks did not look closely at the coins. The gent was under no obligation, according to the legal folks, to tell the clerks they made a mistake.

OK, obviously the gent knew what he was doing. But he got away with it. Does that make it right? Certainly not, and I think that that verdict would be very different if it was tried in modern courthouses. Moral and legal may not be the same thing, but it certainly takes away from someone else, even if you can't see it directly. That $700 that your brother made while sitting in front of a grocery store could have kept a family in a shelter, or fed a bunch of starving folks.

By the by, you can sometimes find gold-plated V-nickels at coin shows.