Why did Robin Hood steal from the rich and give to the poor?

Because the masses were being taxed into starvation by an evil sheriff who tried to usurp the throne. Even the Disney version of the story will tell you that.

Because he was forcing charity. Although it’s not “right” to steal from anyone, including those who are rich, it is also wrong to let people starve/die when you can do something about it.

Sounds like the story has Biblical origins. You know, “robbing Peter” and all…

Because that’s where the money was. (a la Willie Sutton)

It’s pretty self explanatory….lol. Is it not common sense for people that have stuff to try to help people that don’t have stuff?

I wonder, then, who today’s “American Robin Hood” would be?

Many, if not every, culture seems to have a Robin Hood -style myth. Wishful thinking, perhaps?

Because he was a communist marxist from the future.
Seriously, if this story would have been written in modern America, Robin Hood would be the villain.

@chucklmiller There is none. Poor people starve and die (or die from lack of healthcare) in America all the time while there is plenty of money in this nation.

@ragingloli How so?

The myth was that he was “stealing from the rich” and “giving to the poor”. That is, it’s mythical on both ends. He was stealing from everyone he could catch and stop who traveled through Sherwood Forest. Conveniently, that happened to be “the rich”, because they could afford to take trips through the forest, and because they had money to steal. If there had been a middle class, he’d have been stealing from them as well.

“The poor” were… Robin Hood and his merry men.

@chucklmiller
because he takes from the rich and gives to the poor, e.g. redistributes wealth, and you know how much the right hates these kind of people.

@Arisztid Well who could “come to their rescue” in modern America?

@CyanoticWasp Interesting…

@ragingloli I agree with you there!

He might be fictious but Major Oak still stands.

because he wasn’t a politician ??

So he could impress,
those in distress,
and hopefully get laid
by the beautiful maid (Marion)

To inflate his Lurve.

See I ain’t accustomed to standin’ in bread lines or getting my soup for free. But the want ads cost me a dollar to buy and the news- it wasn’t good enough to eat. I know you’re a man of honor, a real stand up guy when you’re not breakin’ into people’s homes while they sleep.You know how to impale and how to hold your ale and your heart goes out to folks like me. Well me, I’m just a man, just a regular joe. I don’t claim to make a fantastic living. I work with my hands, not with arrows and bows.

This redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought…!

Because he Maid Marion Triar fuck with his Little John? No, oh well he must have been a fucking dumb twat then. Fancy giving all that wealth away & to the fucking poor of all people. Ungrateful peasant scum.

Because he was a Socialist and not even born in America.

“Help Help I’m being repressed! ”
“Shut up!”
Come see the violence inherent in the system!”
“Bloody peasant!”
“Oh you see? Did you hear that?That’s what I’m on about!”

(Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!

@chucklmiller Nobody. This is simply business as usual.

@Dr_Dredd
Wrong myth. The Lady of the Lake was King Arthur, and she took Excalibur at the end of the story; she didn’t give it to him. If you’ll recall, he pulled it out of a rock.

Robin Hood was a pragmatist:

Rich people have purses with gold coin, they are the best targets. It would be pretty stupid to rob the poor!

Rich people are the least able to fend off robbery. All physical labour at home is done by (poor) servants.

Robin Hood gave to the poor to protect himself from being robbed by them.
His peers did not resent or envy the spoils of his “craft” because he made their lives more comfortable without the necessity of committing robbery themselves.

because the rich have more money to steal from

look at what’s happened to the world economy now that they’ve all been stealing from the poor and giving to the rich

Robin Hood was smarter. And I bet he lived off the shavings.

@CyanoticWasp That was a different sword Arthur pulled from “the anvil in the stone” (according to Malory). The Lady of the Lake both gave and took back Excalibur. Arthur retrieved it from the arm after promising the Lady a favor. As Arthur lay dying, Sir Pelinore threw it back into the water, on Arthurs orders, where the arm caught it again.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land you are absolutely correct; I had completely forgotten that there was more than one sword in that legend. Looks like it’s time for me to reread T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.

However, I can still argue that the sword that gave Art the kingdom was the one pulled from the stone, and not the one given by the Lady.

@CyanoticWasp Yes, and he had to pull it out on about six different occaisions before the Baronry would accept him as king (according to Malory). Also, Galahads first sword was pulled from a stone, just after his father Lancelot made him a knight.

It’s a process known as “revolutionary taxes”. By giving to the poor he assured himself support of the people against the Sherriff and King John.

@CyanoticWasp I know, but it was a lovely Monty Python quote from the same sketch that @Trillian quoted. :-)

@Dr_Dredd nobody gets me. Thank you. Now stay here, and make sure he doesn’t leave!

Because stealing from the poor and giving to the rich was too George Bush.

Because stealing from the average Joe Taxpayer, you and I, and giving to the rich, Goldman Sachs, required the artistry of B. Hussein Obama and his band of merry thieves.

@UScitizen
You know that the ‘bailout’ as it is called was decided way before Obama took office, by the Bush Regime.