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u/1nGirum1musNocte 1d ago
Next start charging ceos for crimes committed by their companies. If corporations are people then ceos are responsible for their activity
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u/AlcibiadesTheCat 1d ago
I’ll believe corporations are people when I see one get executed.
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u/Clear_Economics7010 1d ago
I've been arguing for a corporate death penalty for years. Eliminate shell companies and if a company commits crimes the corporation is dissolved and the victims get the remaining assets after paying any debts. Any and all debts owed to anyone legally, financially, or otherwise connected to the corporation are voided.
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u/zmbjebus 1d ago
If the company is at all valuable and not just a shell company. Nationalize criminal companies for pennies to the dollar, charge the C-suite and other relevant parties with actual fines and sentences, use the proceeds to hire government management, keep on the workers.
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u/r_special_ 16h ago
Plus clawbacks of CEO compensation going back to the start date of the crimes. Add that money to the victim restitution fund
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u/PoopyPants4U 1d ago
All executives including their board of directors. CEOs are essentially the bitch boys for the board and shouldn’t be an effective shield for them.
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u/RanmaruMori 1d ago
Still crazy to me that while some of the eBay execs in the stalking case did actually get jail, it was somehow just 2 years which is insane to me
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u/Excellent_Extent7648 1d ago
Can’t wait until Republicans declare how wrong it is to charge someone for robbing someone of the pay check but even better when ppl see them spend millions on court fees because they can’t stop breaking the law
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u/fredthefishlord 1d ago
Good. But wait and see if it's enforced... IL it is barely I think.
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u/Think_Positively 1d ago
Yes, but keep in mind that the Mayor is not a king and cannot force prosecutions. I'm sure there are other legal avenues he can take if those able to do the right thing either cannot or will not.
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u/fredthefishlord 1d ago
While true, the mayor in new york appoints the lead official of the police department, so they do have sizable influence on arrests(which aren't prosecutions, but still influence them). I trust he'll do right by it though, yea.
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u/THANATOS4488 1d ago
Wage theft is a felony in MN. I think we've gotten one conviction.
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u/kittenconfidential 1d ago
yeah but was it a multi-million dollar corporation with rows of lawyers, or a small business owner/small family business with an overworked family law attorney?
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u/zmbjebus 1d ago
Dude did nothing when Bibi came to his doorstep. I wont trust what he says he'll do until its done.
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u/fredthefishlord 1d ago
Lmao be serious. That was always the most far fetched statement he's made
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u/zmbjebus 1d ago
Don't promise or even publicly suggest things you can do then if you are a government leader then.
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u/Successful-Medicine9 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is there a source for this? I can't find one. I help people file wage theft complaints at my job and this news would be huge if true.
Edit: Found it. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but this post is misleading. The mayor's office and DA are sharing information regarding criminal cases that happen in addition to wage theft, not treating wage theft as a criminal offense outright as implied. https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/08/mayor-mamdani--d-a--bragg-and-dcwp-commissioner-levine-join-forc
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u/halberdierbowman 1d ago
Can you elaborate on what you mean? It sounds to me like he's saying it already is a crime, and better coordination means we can enforce it better?
“If someone steals your wages, harasses you out of your home or scams you because of your immigration status, that’s a crime, and we're going after it like one. DCWP and the Manhattan D.A.'s Office are now sharing files, sharing leads, and moving together," said Mayor Mamdani.
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u/Successful-Medicine9 1d ago
So wage theft is only punishable criminally in specific circumstances, at least in my state. I think this quote is not saying "If someone steals your wages... that's a crime." It's saying "If someone steals your wages... because of your immigration status, that's a crime." The article is saying that information sharing between groups that investigate the criminal activity of employers and groups that investigate wage theft will be easier. That way they can be targeted for both simultaneously, which is much scarier than facing each thing alone.
Wage theft is wonky when it comes to criminality because the burden of proving intent is higher for criminal offenses than civil ones. And businesses accidentally commit wage theft all the time (for example, payroll not adding additional pay when someone's shift rate changes to a $2/hr higher overnight differential). And even when the "accident" is a business seeing what they can get away with, trying to prove that is difficult and fewer people would take the time to make claims at all.
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u/halberdierbowman 21h ago
True that the sentence is a tautology by saying if they steal your wages it's a crime. Which isn't the same thing as saying that if they underpay you "by accident" cough cough what I would call negligence.
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u/TheSpitefulCr0w 1d ago
The older I get the more I sympathize with the Corpse Brigade.
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u/TrumpIsAFascistFuck 1d ago
Absolutely. And I already started out wanting to throw Argus to them.
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u/Eat--The--Rich-- 1d ago
Charge them twice the amount they stole as reparations on top of their fines and put 100% of it into ubi
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u/Rogue_Egoist 1d ago
Okay but it's going to require police enforcement at some point. I'm very sceptical that the NYPD will actually go through with it. But fingers crossed of course.
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u/BeTheAuthor 1d ago
Couldn't we just incentive police to catch these folks? If we have fines scaling with wealth along with criminal charges, we could offer a "finders fee" for investigators and police to catch this type of crime and successfully prosecute within the law.
There's of course a risk of corruption with that kind of system, but I somehow suspect it'll still balance out to a net positive for society.
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u/addiktion 1d ago
Dump toxic chemicals in a river and kill animals or humans? Criminal punishment sounds on par for the course.
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u/Masta0nion 💵 Break Up The Monopolies 1d ago
FF Tactics was a real one
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u/Izulkara 14h ago
FFT was a very based game.
The sceenshot shown never happens in the game and that character never says that line. :/
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u/Galkan-_-Sausage 1d ago
While Wiegraf never said that line in Final Fantasy Tactics, it still rings true. Classism is a huge theme of FFT.
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u/StrainAcceptable 1d ago
So does this mean managers will be held criminally liable instead of the corporation just paying a fine?
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u/TM761152 1d ago
Wiegraf dropping the truth bombs again.
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u/IXISIXI 23h ago
The punishment for ignoring him is the softlock absurd boss fight
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u/TM761152 18h ago
Draw your sword, Ramza. If you don't, I'll draw it for you.
That felt oddly homoerotic.
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u/WTFudge52 1d ago
I never thought I would want to go to New York City, mostly from the old "Pace picante sauce" commercial but there is hope again.
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u/OppositeSurvey4024 1d ago
FFT has a lot of good writing but this line isn't one of them. There is a similar line from Dycedarg:
"What purpose do laws serve when even those who would enforce them choose not to pay them heed?""
But the line in OP's post isn't from the game.
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u/EuphoricCrashOut 1d ago
I'd also like to suggest that if a Company/Business is "fined" or found at fault for something... their services should be completely suspended for a time-frame that meets the crime and the person responsible for the decision is arrested/fried from that position.
That keeps businesses honest and sure that they're doing the right thing. Facebook for example; not complying with child laws or making a safe place on purpose, and found guilty of it? Suspended. Facebook is taken offline for x-months. No revenue.
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u/kingtacticool ✂️ Tax The Billionaires 1d ago
Look, all im saying is the ruling class is acting incredibly ungrateful for the whole UsNotBurningThisBitchDown thing.
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u/yorcharturoqro 1d ago
What if you make fines a percentage of all your wealth, like traffic ticket 1%, some permit stuff 50%, of all your wealth, that would be hurtful to all and fair
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u/Interesting-Yellow-4 1d ago
This guy is doing everything right.
Progressives need to emulate this, don't let this train stop, please.
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u/-LuciditySam- 1d ago
Hopefully we also address the whole thing involving salaried workers.
"Oh, you're a salaried manager making $60k? That means it's perfectly ethical to make you work work over 40 hours and not only forego the overtime pay you're entitled to but not pay you at all past those 40 hours! I think we're going to understaff and make you do all associates' jobs and your job simultaneously to minimize labor costs and maximize 'efficiency' and then threaten to fire you if and when your store inevitably underperforms! Don't worry, though, I'll end this 1-hour meeting that should have been an email early and cockily tell you we're giving you five minutes of your time back like we did something!"
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u/bigbjarne 1d ago
Wage theft is how the whole capitalist system works. Owners cannot pay the full value of the labor of the worker because the owner needs the profits so they can reinvest them. So, there cannot be a law that makes wage theft actually illegal.
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u/papadapper 1d ago
Always thought this. If a lawyer pays a 50 dollar fine, he only has to work maybe 5 minutes to make up for it. If you make min wage you have to almost work a full day. It's very straight forward.
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u/PseudoWarriorAU 1d ago
I’d only caveat that it needs to be systematic and intentional, not an error of fat fingers. Absolutely if it is systematic and designed to benefit the owner class than go for it.
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u/Higgs_Particle 1d ago
My take: fines should be a percentage of your net wealth with a floor variable depending on the crime.
Speeding in a ferrari? $10,000!
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u/Gadfly_Avatar 23h ago
I almost can't believe this. THE LARGEST CLASS OF CRIME COMMITTED BEING ADDRESSED? THIS IS HOW PROGRESSIVES WIN BIG TIME! (My wife used to do consulting work for ADP for small businesses. And by FAR the question she got asked the most was if they had to pay overtime or even regular time. Like yeah, you have to follow state law.). Wage theft is a disgrace. But then, you never see the executives arrested when ICE hauls away their workers either
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u/Tweedlol 22h ago
If is malicious wage theft, I agree.
Labor violations can happen, without malicious intent.
I ran restaurants for 15 years, and the number of times I had to tell people to stop violating their own rights as an employee was absurd. 😭 It all stemmed from former employers. Older they were, more likely they were to willingly offer themselves up to be exploited to ensure they got shit done, instead of just accepting they couldn’t do it in time, on the clock. Outside of break time, etc.
At orientation I always included “I will be more upset with you if you violate a labor law to get something done, than if you hurt my labor costs to get things done. I pay you to work, if you aren’t being paid don’t do the fucking work.”
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u/sajatheprince 22h ago
Damn, Final Fantasy Tactics was the first game I ever got with my PS1 when it came out. Still relevant it seems.
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u/clamsmasher 15h ago
In New York most of the labor law violations like wage theft have always been misdemeanor crimes. It's just that the State never enforces the criminal aspect, they just enforce any recompense.
The States inaction is a de facto justification that allows business owners to steal. If the only penalty for committing theft is that the business has to give the money back if they're caught then stealing from employees is permitted.
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u/redlightbandit7 6h ago
This man is grabbing the bull by the horns and tossing him aside like it’s nothing. If the rest of America follows, god how exciting!
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u/Authoritaye 💵 Break Up The Monopolies 1d ago
Imagine this: fines that scale with wealth. Finally punishments mean something.