No, I’m not seeking ideas for revenge, rather information for an argument.
So, what activities are (universally accepted as) morally or ethically wrong while still being legal? Let’s skip the trivial or ultra-specific stuff (e.g. exploiting a particular legal loophole)
Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Personal:
Lying (ranges from trivial to major (e.g. for a job)
Cheating on your spouse or SO
Bullying
verbal abuse (impact varies depending on target, frequency of abuse, etc.)
Business:
Tax dodging (e.g. offshore corporations, Kimberlin’s non-profit group, etc.)
Exploiting third world workers
Isn’t cheating on your spouse technically illegal? When I was going through my divorce I remember reading that it’s illegal but really the only time cheating ever comes into play (in the eyes of the law) is during divorce proceedings. And even then no cares about it from a legal stance.
Suppose a group of billionaires buys as much of the global food supply as possible for a given year. Then they just burn it. Mass starvation occurs as a result. What laws did they break?
The problem is, in the eyes of the law, “Sorry, we just don’t need your help anymore” is “no reason at all”. But that’s what UI is for. On the flip side, I had an employee take a second job that interfered with her job at my store so much so that we had to let her go…she filed for unemployment and won because that wasn’t a good enough reason to fire her…she took a 9-5 M-F job and refused to work weekends and we were expected to work around that schedule.
As long as you do it in a boxing ring or MMA cage (and your opponent willingly fights you), you can assault and possibly even kill someone with a high probability of zero legal consequences.
Exactly as phrased, I’d be willing to bet they’d bump up against some kind of fire code violations, EPA violations (for the pollutants they’d release), nuisance laws for the smoke/smell, litter laws for the mess they’d make and probably some others.
But I understand what you’re getting at and probably none if they, say, just composted all the food.
I’ve often observed that without breaking a single law or getting CPS involved you could be a monstrously emotionally(and even physically) abusive parent. Sure you can’t starve your child or beat them, but you can serve them nutritious food designed to be horribly bland or with a horrible texture and you can fuck them up psychologically and emotionally.
Basically if the question is how much harm can I do a child without breaking the law, the answer is A LOT.
Bullying and verbal abuse could be construed as harassment, stalking or intimidation depending on the jurisdiction. However that is a gray area of the law.
Shutting down a company and laying everyone off. Then gloating about it.
Really rubbing in someone’s suffering. If someone they love dies, showing up at the funeral and telling them that their family member deserved to die so you could watch the person suffer. But again this could be harassment (or trespassing or disorderly conduct or something) if people wanted it to be badly enough.
Health insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment (this law may have changed, at least a little, with Obamacare).
Finding a religious family and indoctrinating their kids into atheism (or Islam or some other religion other than the parent’s religion). The parents will be terrified for their children’s souls.
I’m picturing the classic ‘blackmailer’ scenario, where the criminal patiently explains just how he could ruin your life unless you pay him to remain silent.
Except he never actually gets to the part about hush money; he lays out what he’s learned, and how it would get you fired and break up your marriage and leave you bankrupt, at which point he pauses and blinks and heads out to relay some information.
Thanks for getting the nerd answer* out of the way, now on to the helpful responses.
*“nerd answer” (n): a response which contributes nothing to a discussion, provides no useful information, and serves no benefit except to show the speakers (the one giving a nerd answer) academic superiority (and hence increase their ego).