What's at stake when dealing with plagerism?

The main thing that I believe is at stake when dealing with plagerism is that, even if it was completly unintentional, your credibility can be ruined for any future pieces. Not to mention, the original author of the work will not receive the correct credit for writing the piece. Future professors, employers, publishers ect.. will have to deeply consider whether reading another one of your pieces is actually worth their time again. It's understandable if it was by accident because some research is common knowledge, but as in the Fish article, taking someone's work and deliberately making it your own is unfair and wrong.