Wage theft is bigger than all other theft, but far fewer people are dragged onto the sidewalk and strangled to death for it. Maybe that should change.
"When the truth walks away, everybody stays 'cuz the truth about the world is that crime does pay. So if you walk away, who is gonna stay? 'Cuz I like to think the world is a better place."
Underrated Offspring jam! I feel like Offspring get written off as pop-punk but are generally underrated as political artists.
Listening to that album nowadays is hair-raising. It's almost as though people have been screaming in Americans faces for decades about what's becoming impossible to ignore, I know I was singing these lyrics since 1999:
"Well, I'd like to tell you all about my dream
It's a place where strip malls abound
And diversion's mere moments away
Where culture's defined by the ones least refined
And you'll be left behind if you don't fit in
It's all distorted in Americana my way
Well, fuck you
Whoa, whoa, whoa, well, my dream has come true
Whoa, whoa, whoa, my vision has come true
Now give me my cable, fast food
Four-by's, tat's right away
I want it right now 'cause
My ge-generation don't like to wait
My future's determined by thieves, thugs and vermin
It's quite an excursion but it's okay
Everything's backwards in Americana my way
Well, fuck you
Whoa, whoa, whoa, well, my dream has come true
Whoa, whoa, whoa, my vision has come true
Yeah, it's all coming true
I'm a product of my environment
So don't blame me, I just work here
But I wanna fuck it up
My rights are denied by those least qualified
Trading profit for pride but it's, it's okay
Everything's backwards in Americana my way
Well, fuck you
Whoa, whoa, whoa, my nightmare has come true
Whoa, whoa, whoa, my nightmare has come true
Yeah, it's all coming true
Yeah, it's all coming true"
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.
James 5:1-6
Dayum! New favorite bible passage for being obnoxious towards hypocrites with just dropped!
And by "just" I mean "a thousand years ago", or whenever that part of their book was written 🤷
I'm sure this global company only did it in NY for some reason though, better not look into this globally. Wouldn't want to do that now!
Maybe only NY had the foresight to make this practice illegal?
This is why, regardless of who delivers food the few times I order out, I always tip in cash (don't have to claim it, company can't steal it.)
US workers do have to claim tips though. Whether they do or not, and how enforceable that is, is a different story.
Canada here, I believe ours do as well, but easier to hide when in cash and company can't steal it. I had heard of this when DD et. al. was relatively new and decided then cash was the way. It is up to the employee to do or not do
Few things.
- Corporations are not people. Laws need to change and loopholes need to be closed.
- The rich need to pay their way. Laws need to change and loopholes need to be closed.
The question is how are we gonna go about that.
🐷✂🗑 I had to get creative, my keyboard doesn't have an guillotine emoji
Pig-scissors-thrash is kinda clear tbh.
Luigi started. Who will take up the mantle?
All I can tell you is it has to get a lot worse before it gets better. I don't see change coming without bloodshed because those in power and their enablers don't want either of those things to happen.
We start by closing loopholes and making the rich pay their way.
And if they don't? Guillotines, baby!
I'm all for that, truly.
How do we start?
We've been talking about this online for as long as I remember, and my beard is starting to get grey hairs. To be honest, it's been pumping up recently, but it's still just unorganised discontent instead of an actual organised effort to do something. And those do exist, yeah, but they don't rival the power of the large companies.
So I'm starting to lose my optimism.
Organizing is hard and I don't know how to do it, either. It doesn't help that a lot of media is owned by conservatives, and the police/gov't historically hasn't hesitated to murder organizers (see: fred hampon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton )
They steal from everyone. My wife was stuck in a hotel with no room service about a year ago and didn't feel up to walking for food. She found that she could get a free year doodash subscription through her Amazon Prime. She joined, got her food and promptly cancelled the subscription. We've just been through the joy of getting a refund for two months of doordash that hit our credit card.
We have a legal system that protects the rich and punishes the poor. Luigi gave us a taste of what the opposite could look like.
Should I DM the mod of this community and double check if it's okay for me to upvote? Oh silly me... this is lemmy. Of course it's okay to upvote this fact of life!
I wonder if you could create an argument for this blatant disparity and how punishments are meted out to show how penalties for shoplifting and personal theft crimes are cruel and unusual. If stealing 17 million comes with less penalty than stealing 1700 then the penalties for 1700 are therefore unusual right?
I suppose step 1 in that line of thinking is ending prison slavery and the systemic violence prisoners and guards inflict on the incarcerated.
Not that we can't do two things at once...
"Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility" Ambrose Bierce
"If it's done out of greed, they let you do it"
I mean, that's basically how the entire hospitality industry operates at this point.
The early history behind tipping was basically to not pay black people and keep some simulacrum of slavery. Black people were historically pretty predominant in the hospitality industry - a good way to pay them shit, and make them dependent on the generosity of white people.
Also I believe I found the related source: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-secures-1675-million-doordash-cheating-delivery-workers
I didn't see anything on a quick read about how they came up with these numbers, or if there are any more serious penalties. Seems like a pretty light penalty.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise
NZ parliament recently passed an act clarifying that wage theft is theft and that individuals may be criminally liable if they commit it: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/member/2023/0245/4.0/whole.html
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