Asklemmy

Smoking. Millions of euros of taxpayer money spent every year on those lung cancer patients which could be well spent elsewhere. It's also an activity that negatively affects not just the smoker but everyone around them.

Supermarkets and businesses throwing food away and not allowing people to take it for free. ("If I can't sell it nobody can have it").

Requiring the purchase or use of proprietary software or formats to view or submit public records.

Collection of personally identifiable information on every website ever.

Corporate murder.

Making a profit from healthcare and health insurance.

Or even just make private health insurance illegal.

Lobbying.

Members of Congress trading individual stocks, bonds, and other investments.

For-profit healthcare.

Lies and exaggerated advertising.

No, it's not "best in the world" or "lightning fast", it's an entry level $200 GPU!

No, it doesn't have "crystal clear high-res screen", it's just a budget phone!

No, that tampon will not change my lifestyle!

No, that perfume will not make guys drooling over me!

I'm ok with "it's decent quality with an affordable price".

I'm ok with "it's the best budget-friendly option".

I'm ok with "it's not the best in the world, but it's definitely worth a try".

Making more than 10x the money of your least paid employee.

Boneless chicken with bones

Nutrition information based on unrealistic serving sizes.

I've seen an individually wrapped muffin "servings per pack: 2".

Then there's that Tom Scott video on how "zero calory" sweetener can be 4 calories.

Unlimited political spending, particularly by corporations - see Citizen's United.

Locked bootloaders

Qualified immunity for police officers. Prosecutors and judges basically get qualified immunity, too-- in that they can be caught engaging in all sorts of inappropriate and illegal activity without facing punishment because like police, it usually doesn't even get to the extent of being charged.

Requiring agreement to some unspecified ever-changing terms of service in order to use the product you just bought, especially when use of such products is required in the modern world. Google and Apple in particular are more or less able to trivially deny any non-technical person access to smartphones and many things associated with them like access to mobile banking. Microsoft is heading that way with Windows requiring MS accounts, too, though they're not completely there yet.

Billionaires. Nobody ever needs that much wealth. Resources better used elsewhere for the public good.

predatory microtransactions in video games that are essentially gambling.

Child marriages. Fact that's legal in any US States is absurd.

• not having the day off to vote
• FPTP
• unlimited funding from unrestricted sources in politics
• impunity for blatantly corrupt unelected political appointees

Etc.

Mutilating the bodies of people too young or otherwise unable to give consent.

Insane rent hikes. Landlords and corps shouldn't be able to raise rent from $1,700 mo to $8,000 mo in a single period, let alone a handful of years.

Advertising. I just hate how it’s crept into every facet of our lives and it’s not done intruding in on our daily lives either.

Conflicts of interest. Sometimes illegal, but not nearly as much as they should be (almost always)

Like congress members being allowed to trade stock, which can then be affected by their vote

Or one of the specifically carved out exceptions to the medical kickbacks laws is for the people who negotiate drug prices for pharmacies

Forced arbitration clauses.

selling boneless chicken wings with bones.

I think tacking on irrelevant laws onto popular bills to get them passed shouldn't be allowed.

Politicians shouldn't be allowed to trade stocks, especially when they're in a position to pass laws that would directly affect their holdings.

Super PACs, it's absolutely wild that that's a thing IMO.

I think there should also be a "cooling off" period of some sort over passing/repealing laws. I'm thinking as an example of the Republicans after Obamacare was passed, when they tried to repeal it something like 70 times in 10 years. I get that things change and laws sometimes need to be amended or updated, but there should really be some system in place to prevent people from spamming up the whole system like that.

I'm also not a big fan of the filibuster.

Monopolies

When you are in a political position you are not allowed to lie.

Predatory advertising... commonly is the form of fear mongering, but any form should be illegal.

Small print, excessive legalese and outright deceptive language in ads, agreements and such. All the "free" (not really free) trials, "unlimited" (not really unlimited) plans, "best value" (according to the producer and their mum) deals and shit like that.

There really should be a law prohibiting that - if reading through terms and conditions for using a damn website or a toothbrush or whatever requires 4 hours of free time, a magnifyibg glass and degree in law, such t&cs should be illegal. Same for disclaimers and such in ads - any 4pt text displayed for 2 seconds on screen should automatically result in a massive fine.

Lobbying.

Minor being member of religious (or political) organization

In the US slavery should be illegal since ages but isn't yet.

The employer-employee contract

It violates the theory of inalienable rights that implied the abolition of constitutional autocracy, coverture marriage, and voluntary self-sale contracts.

Inalienable means something that can't be transferred even with consent. In case of labor, the workers are jointly de facto responsible for production, so by the usual norm that legal and de facto responsibility should match, they should get the legal responsibility i.e. the fruits of their labor

@asklemmy

Social- and greenwashing proposals.

"By buying [unnecessary product] you will help [marginalized group] to gain a livable income and also send their kids to school instead of sending them to [work place with - even for adults - horrible work conditions]. Also, when buying [product] we will save [arbirtary area] of [rainforest/ coral reef/ mangrove swamp] that would otherwise have been destroyed [but not by us]. Additional to that, your purchase helped us to save [arbitrary ammount of CO~2~ - at least in a completely hypothetical scenario]. While using [product] you will make the world a better place."

As a customer there is barely any way you can ensure or check that these things are true. It cannot be possible to save the enviroment while buying stupid products like, for example, internet-of-shit-devices which will be phased out in no time or single use products made from plastic or other harmful materials that are not recycleable.

All these claims are just an indulgance trade - like it is done for centuries in a religious context. It is just that you have an excuse to consume more, because they to something to help people/ enviroment. If there was a product that would have been advertised as: "Well, we irretrieveably destroyed 100 km^2^ of nature, and for each single product in average two workers died and at end-of-life this product will fuck up the environment once more - also it will impair your health just by existing", it would be horrible - but at least it would be honest.

Killing animals for pleasure.

Edit: I love how the voting discrepancy here shows the hypocrisy lol

Honestly? Alcohol. I used to work security at a rehab, and it was always the worst addiction. The withdrawls are horrible, up to and including death. Yes, even worse than heroin.

Private cars in cities.
They're noisy, unhealthy, cause massive damage to infrastructure, transport one person at a time while taking up enough space for ~10 in the road, fill open spaces for parking, sometimes while being completely unusable, endanger everyone else on the roads....

The selling of personal information.