oh cool, another person who doesn’t understand what “social construct” means, but tries to dismiss it…
Comment on By letting the capitalistic class write the laws we let them dictate the morality of the country.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Just because the rich are protected from their white collar crime doesn’t mean the concept of crime as a whole is a social construct.
Crime exists, crime is crime. Your boss short changing you money wouldn’t get the same reaction as lifting money from the till but you’d still have legal recourse to either get the money from them or take legal action to sue them.
Double standards under the law doesn’t equal “crime is an invented concept.”
TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Nougat@kbin.social 11 months ago
If you lift money from the till, you can be arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced. Now you are A Criminal™.
If your boss shorts you $100 on your paycheck, you have to politely go ask for it back, and hope they give it to you. Failing that, you get the labor board involved, which takes a whole lot of time, and you're probably going to be fired, whether the boss gives you your money or not.
It's a double standard for the employee; it's an invented concept (for the purposes of controlling labor) for the employer.
shalafi@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Nothing you said was false, but it don’t work like that IRL.
If you stole from the till, you did so with malice aforethought. And you are in fact a criminal. End.
If you get shorted, and politely bring it up, the employer will shit themselves making it right. They want no phone calls from the labor board. The employer is guilty until proven innocent in these matters.
Problem is, most folks don’t know this, or believe things like you posted, i.e., they’ll get fired for a complaint. No, you won’t get fired for asking for your pay. LOL, the fucking your employer would receive is astounding, and NOT worth firing you over their mistake.
Guys, if your employer’s sins are so egregious, it’s a simple call to $State_Labor_Board. Know your rights, and this one is easy. No lawyers, just make a call and state your allegations. Done. Now your employer is on the hook to prove you’re wrong.
Employer doesn’t like it and fires you? LOL my god, what a mess for them. You could press the attack, but if you’re smart you’ll walk away with every dollar you claimed, at worst. I’ve seen it done.
“I worked overtime every week for 6-months and got paid regular hours!”
Did you sign off on falsely worked hours? Well, that’s on you. If you didn’t, and the employer can’t produce records, you get every penny you claimed.
Nougat@kbin.social 11 months ago
Constructive dismissal.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The way I viewed it, if they short you a $100 on your paycheck you will have to prove them the hours, bring it to HR and try to get it fixed on the next paycheck. They borrowed $100 for 2 weeks and wasted company time. If you borrowed $100 from the till for 2 weeks without asking you would just be fired. I doubt any real legal recourse would be brought in either case. They would mark down your register was off and terminate employment.
shalafi@lemmy.world 11 months ago
you will have to prove them the hours
Mostly on-the-money, but no, they have to prove the hours if the labor board gets involved. And that’s a simple phone call, no lawyers or money involved. (Don’t sign off on your hours, literally or digitally, if they are not correct.)
And no, you can’t “borrow” $100 from the till. That’s theft, plain and simple. Many employers have a system by which they can easily loan you a small amount like that. Just ask. You might be surprised. (Often not advertised because of the potential for abuse.)
$100 isn’t worth anyones time
No lie. When I was 16, a long time ago, my ex-Marine tough-guy McDonald’s manager sat me down over a missing $10. Almost surely my fuck up, but he made it out like I stole. Got very threatening.
Inside I was like, “Are you shitting me?! I make $3.34/hr. Would it be worth 3 hours pay to lose my job you numb nut?!”
Outside, “I… uh… I mean, is $10 bucks worth getting fired? Why would anyone do that? Uh, I made a mistake making change… or something… Uh, I’m sorry. Won’t happen again. ^please don’t kill me^”
Fuck me. Humiliated and treated like a thief over a measly $10. 35-years later and I still remember that asshole beating up a teenager over chicken change.
Anyway, I went out drinking vodka with my fellow punkers, trashed an abandoned bowling alley, dodged the police helicopter and skated talking to the cops because my friend’s dad was cop, crashed at some popular punk’s apartment, crawled home in the 100° Oklahoma summer sun, and called in sick. LOL, he fired me and I was grateful. Got my leather motorcycle jacket out of frying those fries and working the register. Fuck 'em. 80’s were good times. I got stories. 😁
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Haha agreed, the borrowed for both sides was more joking terminolgy than realism. As for signing hours, I haven’t had that since 2011/2012. Since then it has always been submit hours for approval and direct deposit. If the amount was off is where you’d have to bring it to HR for the companies I’ve been with.
My experiences with employment don’t reach the 80s though. Been working full time hours since 16, but I’m in my mid 30s.
Thrillhouse@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Crime is absolutely an invented concept.
Drinking and driving used to be legal. Now it is a crime. Nothing changed except our society via our elected representatives opted to enact punishments if an individual’s is caught drinking and driving.
It is illegal for me to purchase or possess a firearm in Canada unless I acquire a license to do so. If I don’t meet these requirements and am found in possession of a weapon, I will be prosecuted and face jail time if convicted. However, in American states pretty much anyone can own a gun. The guns are the same; the difference is the values each society places on gun ownership and the contexts under which owning guns is a crime.
Canada has no stand your ground laws / castle doctrine. It is almost impossible to mount a defense here if you severely injure or kill someone trespassing in your home unless your life is at risk and even then it is difficult to prove that. Many US states allow people to use lethal force to protect property and there isn’t even a trial. The act in question here is the same; the difference is how our societies have invented and constructed our laws.
I am technically not allowed to cross the border into Quebec, 15 minutes away from my home, purchase a case of beer where it is cheaper, and then bring that beer back across the border to Ontario. The beer itself is not illegal. Consuming the beer is not illegal. The act of transporting the beer across provincial borders is technically a crime.
My friend has a house in Quebec. I have a house in Ontario. Cannabis is legal in Canada at a federal level. It is a crime for my friend in Quebec to grow their own cannabis for personal consumption on their own property. In Ontario, 15 minutes away, I am permitted to grow 4 plants per adult who lives in my household for personal consumption. The pot plants are the same; the social constructs surrounding the plants are not.
There are so many current examples throughout history and throughout the world of things that used to be legal or illegal in different countries, cultures, and societies that are now the opposite. Slavery, segregation, discrimination, gay marriage? Nothing has changed with these acts - society has changed their definition of what is a crime and what is not. That makes crime something that is invented by humans, the nature of which constantly changes.
If you were one of the last 2 people on earth and the other person killed all of your livestock, has a crime been committed? How can a crime be committed if there is no social contract which dictates what the consequences should be for that act?
Mozingo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
From my understanding a social construct is something that is that is formed through an agreement between people in a society as opposed to something that is an objective observation of phyiscial reality. Like for example money is a social construct, because we all agree that it has value and treat it as such, even though objectively a hundred dollar bill is just a piece of cloth and otherwise would only have as much value as any other piece of cloth. Democracy is a social construct, marriage, the calandar, gender norms, fashion, and crime are all social constructs. It doesn’t mean they aren’t “real” things, just that they’re only real because we all collectively agree they’re real.
If you don’t agree with that definition, I’m curious what you think a social construct is and what things you would believe to be social constructs?