As society evolves, our understanding of what constitutes ethical behavior shifts. Laws should reflect these changes, ensuring the well-being and progress of all. While legality doesn’t necessarily equate to morality, certain practices currently deemed legal raise serious ethical concerns. Here are 30 things that, in many people’s opinion, should be illegal:
Predatory Lending
It targets vulnerable individuals with high-interest loans and hidden fees, trapping them in cycles of debt. There’s no internationally agreed-upon legal definition of predatory lending. This makes it challenging to identify and prosecute such practices definitively.
Wage Theft
Wage theft encompasses a wide range of practices that involve employers withholding wages that employees have rightfully earned. This can include failing to pay overtime, not paying minimum wage, misclassifying employees as exempt from overtime, and deducting illegal amounts from paychecks.
Exploitation of Natural Resources
Exploiting natural resources can involve unregulated environmental damage and resource extraction for personal gain, jeopardizing our planet’s future. Generally, exploiting natural resources without proper permits or adhering to existing regulations is illegal, but many gray areas exist.
Planned Obsolescence
Some products naturally degrade over time due to use or technological advancements, which isn’t inherently illegal. But designing products with intentionally shortened lifespans through limited repairability, weak materials, or software updates that disable older models becomes ethically and legally muddy.
Deceptive Marketing and Advertising
Generally, most countries have laws and regulations to protect consumers from deceptive practices. However, these laws can vary considerably in their scope and enforcement.
Corporate Tax Avoidance
While there are many rules about tax avoidance, many people need to be more ethically astute regarding business—exploiting loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and depriving governments of revenue for essential services.
Conversion Therapy
Attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity through harmful and ineffective practices, but no international law explicitly bans conversion therapy.
Denial of Climate Change
Climate change significantly threatens public health, safety, and the environment. Denying it hinders effective action, leading to potentially catastrophic consequences.
Social Media Manipulation
Exploiting algorithms to spread misinformation and manipulate users, contributing to societal polarization, should be illegal, but some culprits barely get banned from the sites and never reprimanded.
Loopholes in Gun Control
They are allowing easy access to firearms, contributing to gun violence and preventable deaths. Proponents argue that closing loopholes, like the “gun show loophole” or private seller exemptions, can prevent firearms from reaching individuals who might pose a danger to themselves or others.
Corporate Influence in Politics
Undue influence of corporations on political processes, jeopardizing democracy and fair representation. Some countries indirectly allow corporations to influence elections through Super PACs and dark money channels. These entities can raise unlimited funds to support or oppose candidates and ballot initiatives, often without disclosing their donors.
Banks Shouldn’t Be Too Big to Fail
Whether it should be illegal for banks to be “too big to fail” (TBTF) is a complex and contested issue with strong arguments on both sides. When banks know governments will bail them out if they engage in risky behavior, it encourages excessive risk-taking, potentially leading to financial crises.
Excessive Pollution
While regulations exist, some argue stricter limitations are needed to combat industrial air and water pollution, deforestation, and dumping of hazardous waste. Practices like hydraulic fracturing and deep-sea mining raise concerns about environmental damage and resource depletion.
Politicians Buying Stocks
Politicians can generally buy and sell individual stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments, just like any other citizen. It is illegal for politicians to use non-public information gained through their official positions to trade stocks for personal gain. Still, many people think politicians buying stocks should be illegal altogether.
Making It Nearly Impossible to Cancel a Subscription
Some companies deliberately erect roadblocks to cancellation, hoping customers will surrender and keep paying. The subscription game has turned predatory, with some companies making cancellation intentionally arduous to trap customers.
Different Prices for Insurance Companies and the Public
Unlike insurance giants, you lack the muscle to negotiate, which some people think should be illegal. That often means your doctor earns significantly less from your visit.
Keeping People Part-Time to Avoid Offering Benefits
Companies exploit a loophole, keeping workers precariously part-time to dodge benefit costs. This unethical practice traps people in poverty and needs to be outlawed. Denying benefits through strategic under-employment is a modern form of wage theft. It is time to close this legal loophole and protect workers.
Pop-Up Ads
Pop-up ads can be incredibly disruptive to the user experience. They often appear unexpectedly, blocking content and making it difficult to navigate a website. This can be frustrating and lead users to abandon the site altogether.
Ads in Apps With Fake Demos
Don’t be fooled by the “play now” bait! Those flashy demo ads are increasingly a sneaky portal to the app store, not an actual glimpse of the game.
Blinding Headlights
Glare from excessively bright headlights can significantly impair a driver’s vision, making it difficult to see the road ahead, obstacles, and other vehicles. This can lead to accidents, especially at night or in poor weather conditions.
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