3 ms·

It comes up in every crime discussion -- a poster runs in to point out that actually, wage theft is worse than someone beating and robbing your elderly grandmot

by floren 3y ago

It comes up in every crime discussion -- a poster runs in to point out that actually, wage theft is worse than someone beating and robbing your elderly grandmother.

justrealist 3y ago
They also have to torture the numbers to make the case that it's comparable. The "wage theft" numbers they cite include like, some defense subcontractor suing Lockheed Martin for unpaid hours. It's important that it doesn't happen, but it's just a different order of magnitude of damage for the people sensitive to it.
somehnguy 3y ago
I’ve never seen anyone compare wage theft to violent crime like you’re implying. It’s usually in the context that wage theft is a much larger problem than people realize - to the point that depending on which source you choose it’s either on par or larger than other forms of theft.
- floren 3y ago
  Searching the archives for "wage theft" turns up examples pretty trivially, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37703395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37703395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37751850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37751850 You're right that they're not saying "wage theft is worse than murder", just "wage theft is worse than all other forms of theft"
  - somehnguy 3y ago
    I don’t see any references to physically harming people in your examples. I also don’t believe anyone is implying violent crime when comparing to other types of theft.
- Paul-Craft 3y ago
  I don't get where you're getting "on par" from. Literally the only year that other forms of theft have exceeded or even come close to wage theft was the year Bernie Madoff got convicted. That's just an accounting artifact.
cde-v 3y ago
Without even going that far, why should blue collar workers respect the law when the white collar workers are corrupting the legal system for their benefit? Why should the poor tolerate a class war robbing them of their livelihoods and not retaliate?

by floren 3y ago

It comes up in every crime discussion -- a poster runs in to point out that actually, wage theft is worse than someone beating and robbing your elderly grandmother.

justrealist 3y ago

They also have to torture the numbers to make the case that it's comparable. The "wage theft" numbers they cite include like, some defense subcontractor suing Lockheed Martin for unpaid hours. It's important that it doesn't happen, but it's just a different order of magnitude of damage for the people sensitive to it.

somehnguy 3y ago

I’ve never seen anyone compare wage theft to violent crime like you’re implying. It’s usually in the context that wage theft is a much larger problem than people realize - to the point that depending on which source you choose it’s either on par or larger than other forms of theft.

floren 3y ago
Searching the archives for "wage theft" turns up examples pretty trivially, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37703395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37703395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37751850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37751850 You're right that they're not saying "wage theft is worse than murder", just "wage theft is worse than all other forms of theft"
- somehnguy 3y ago
  I don’t see any references to physically harming people in your examples. I also don’t believe anyone is implying violent crime when comparing to other types of theft.
Paul-Craft 3y ago
I don't get where you're getting "on par" from. Literally the only year that other forms of theft have exceeded or even come close to wage theft was the year Bernie Madoff got convicted. That's just an accounting artifact.

cde-v 3y ago

Without even going that far, why should blue collar workers respect the law when the white collar workers are corrupting the legal system for their benefit? Why should the poor tolerate a class war robbing them of their livelihoods and not retaliate?