From my industry: Perhaps the purchase of chemicals for the manufacture of fireworks. It’s surprisingly easy to order pounds and pounds of different oxidizers and fuels.
The one I need is highly controlled. I need to make my own strike anywhere matches since Uco quit, need red phosphorous, don’t want to scrape it off of match strikers for hours, want a big ol’ jar. Apparently it’s also used to make “MeTh” so I can’t buy it.
Powdered aluminum though no problem, go figure.
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.
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 CO2 - 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 km2 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.
“illegal” is overrated, anyway. Trump did a ton of illegal stuff and yet, here we are.
MlM’s. They’re predatory.
while I generally agree with you, lots of things that are legal could be called predatory and people don’t seem to have a problem with them, but somehow MLM crosses the line.
Everyone has a different definition of what is acceptable and I don’t think there is enough of a majority consensus one way or the other to do something about it.
Tbh this is one is a little personally motivated.
I watched a very smart person I worked for get sucked into an MLM and it was disturbingly cult like the way it played out. One day literally everything about was this Lev-el Thrive vitamin shit. Which around $300 a month to take caffeine laced vitamins with willow bark. Which they were told was safe for everyone by the company… but willow bark is more or less asprin. People with heart issues shouldn’t be taking that shit.
I used to think only stupid people fell for mlms, but my previous boss successfully ran a business for around 15 years(the one I was employed at). I had to leave that job because my boss couldn’t pay me anymore. All their money went into this ‘side business’ that the company kept saying they’d make it back. They did not.
That whole experience was like a fever dream to me. It felt like my boss had been body snatched by some mlm greed demon, and ever since i just see mlms as culty life ruiners that should be illegal.
Social media.
Members of Congress trading individual stocks, bonds, and other investments.
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.
We tried that in the US. It went very poorly.
Because they saw just how badly prohibition went, shame it took them a century to catch up with weed.
Nope, it was just returned to public spotlight in the 70s as a tool to fight the counterculture
Go pick up a history book.
Why? Simply because this was actually tried in America? All I’m doing is answering the question. Just because this country failed at making it illegal does not mean it still shouldn’t be illegal.
People are allowed to make their own decisions, even if they’re bad decisions. And it shouldn’t be illegal because it has been proven that making it illegal only makes everything worse.
OK and I think it should be illegal, so you think however you want.
Read up on US prohibition and how it funded the Mafia. It just changes the form of the societal disease.
The answer to addiction is having support and care on place for those that fall to it so society helps pick them up again. You can’t stop the abuse of substances unless you fix why people are crawling into a hole to avoid the world. Lack of mental health is a disease of society as well as the individual.
Its so mad that we have such a literal example of exactly what happens, due to prohibition, yet society refuses to see like for like. The mafia simply used the exact same routes to smuggle heroin. They didn’t disappear or die out, due to alcohol prohibition ending. They got into bed with the CIA, under operation gladio. What they did with crack wasn’t the first or the biggest example.
Like you said, you can’t people abusing substances. They remain illegal because somewhere some very powerful people are making too much money from them remaining so.
I am in my late 30s. Drank in college with friends at parties. I dont anymore just not into it. I like things that make me faster, smarter, or stronger. I dont understand why all TV shows and movies seem to be centered around drinking when its a social scene. (I live in north america). Nothing good comes from drinking alcohol. They make it seem like if you’re relaxing or want to have fun you need alcohol. I just need a good brisket for both those.
Products purposefully manufactured to be unfixable. Main example being anything apple…you can’t even add ram to a iMac anymore and they have the audacity to sell the lower end model with 8 gigs of ram as if that’s enough when everyone knows its not. Basically selling a 1400$ piece of shit.
It is far worse if you look at the radmom no name brand products sold by Amazon, they are straight manufactured trash, that is only barely functioning when it comes out of the factory.
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”.
I personally think the “how good is it” part of “advertising” should literally just be a percentage value of “how many existing customers say it was worth it”.
But even that would get gamed the way 5/5 amazon reviews can be bought today already.
So maybe it should really just be “it’s a insert thing made out of insert material produced in insert country by insert labour conditions and it costs insert price”.
Gambling, overtime working.
Locked bootloaders
Legal names.
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.
Yep. It’s insane to me how society goes to such lengths to make road transportation, driving, cars etc safer, and then is perfectly fine with billboards. It’s super illegal to be distracted by your phone whilst driving, but a giant graphical ad on the side of the road is totally cool. Whut
Unlimited political spending, particularly by corporations - see Citizen’s United.
Campaign financing in general. If you get enough signatures you’ll get a fixed amount of money from tax payers for your campaign. If you accept money from anyone else you’re barred from public office for life. End of corruption right there.
