4 ms·

> known quantity of the wages you get not being theoretically as high as they should be When you're living in poverty, withheld wages is a much larger problem

by MiroF 6y ago

> known quantity of the wages you get not being theoretically as high as they should be When you're living in poverty, withheld wages is a much larger problem than your apparently daily encounters with aggressive pickpockets, are you kidding me? What an incredibly tone deaf comment.

jimmaswell 6y ago
Robbery, pickpocketing, car stolen: poor person might lose the majority of their net worth, not be able to get to their job and get fired, probably not be able to replace certain things, etc. potentially spiraling into much worse. Not to mention the effects on your feeling of security. Wage theft: didn't get paid for doing something before clocking in or got their hours messed with or whatever, which is also very bad of course, but more spread out and not as directly disastrous as the other scenario even if the total numbers might be higher. So no, it's not tone deaf if you look past your knee-jerk reaction, it's just a well-reasoned justification why someone might be more mad about thieves than wage theft. It's not unreasonable to have the view that one murder is worse than a trillion people stubbing their toes once a week for a year even if the second scenario might add up to a higher score if you added it up by some quantifiable ethical metric.
- MiroF 6y ago
  > Wage theft Or like you're paid $6/hr to do migrant farm work when the minimum wage is $12. That adds up much more quickly and leads people to turn to things like theft. That's already half your net worth right there. > Robbery, pickpocketing, car stolen The average person, even the average person in poverty, is not going to lose the majority of their net worth from pickpocketing, that's just absurd. Now you're adding in two other crimes, which you didn't mention in your original comment, (you just said pickpocketing is worse than wage theft). Most people in poverty don't own cars in the first place. My reaction wasn't knee-jerk - the suggestion that pickpocketing is some sort of epidemic across America affecting the nation's poor is just absurd on face.

by MiroF 6y ago

jimmaswell 6y ago

Robbery, pickpocketing, car stolen: poor person might lose the majority of their net worth, not be able to get to their job and get fired, probably not be able to replace certain things, etc. potentially spiraling into much worse. Not to mention the effects on your feeling of security. Wage theft: didn't get paid for doing something before clocking in or got their hours messed with or whatever, which is also very bad of course, but more spread out and not as directly disastrous as the other scenario even if the total numbers might be higher. So no, it's not tone deaf if you look past your knee-jerk reaction, it's just a well-reasoned justification why someone might be more mad about thieves than wage theft. It's not unreasonable to have the view that one murder is worse than a trillion people stubbing their toes once a week for a year even if the second scenario might add up to a higher score if you added it up by some quantifiable ethical metric.

MiroF 6y ago
> Wage theft Or like you're paid $6/hr to do migrant farm work when the minimum wage is $12. That adds up much more quickly and leads people to turn to things like theft. That's already half your net worth right there. > Robbery, pickpocketing, car stolen The average person, even the average person in poverty, is not going to lose the majority of their net worth from pickpocketing, that's just absurd. Now you're adding in two other crimes, which you didn't mention in your original comment, (you just said pickpocketing is worse than wage theft). Most people in poverty don't own cars in the first place. My reaction wasn't knee-jerk - the suggestion that pickpocketing is some sort of epidemic across America affecting the nation's poor is just absurd on face.