Not surprisingly, the last entry on stealing has created some controversy.
I'm in Florida right now, and used a small airline to get here. The airline has low fares in part because they do not serve complimentary items. During the flight, attendants roll a beverage cart down the isle and sell drinks, snacks, and souvenirs. An employee mentioned that people sometimes steal items from the carts and these items must be paid for by the flight attendants.
That sounds unreasonable and unfair, so I looked it up to see if it's legal. Turns out...it depends on the state.
This company is based in Florida, where there are no paycheck garnishment laws, but many other states make it illegal. For example, here is the law for Kentucky:
Kentucky law on wage deductions:
Kentucky - KRS statute 337.060
ILLEGAL DEDUCTIONS
No employer shall withhold from any employee's wages any part of the agreed wage rate; unless
(a) the employer is required to do so by local, state, or federal law
(b) when a deduction is expressly authorized in writing by the employee to cover insurance premiums, hospital, or medical dues
(c) other deductions not amounting to a rebate or deduction from the standard wage arrived at by collective bargaining or pursuant to wage agreement or statute
(d) deductions for union dues where such deductions are authorized by joint wage agreements or collective bargaining contracts negotiated between employers and employees or their representatives.
No employer shall deduct the following from the wages of employees:
(a) Fines
(b) Cash shortages in a common money till, cash box or register used by two (2) or more persons
(c) Breakage
(d) Losses due to acceptance by an employee of checks which are subsequently dishonored if such employee is given discretion to accept or reject any check
(e) Losses due to defective or faulty workmanship, lost or stolen property, damage to property, default of customer credit or nonpayment for goods or services received by the customer if such losses are not attributable to employee's willful or intentional disregard of employer's interest
It seems really unfair, (probably because it is) that a company can charge its employees for items that are lost, stolen, or damaged through no fault of their own. That means that if a can of soda is damaged on the airplane due to factory fault, or turbulence, or...whatever...that the flight attendant has to pay for it? Unfortunately, yes. I don't know what the exact policy of this airline is. Perhaps the employees can comp a damaged item but not a stolen one.
The good news is, this is not a national phenomenon. Also, no employer can dock an employees pay so that it goes below minimum wage. So if you're on shift and someone steals a high-price item, your boss can't deny you a check. You must receive at least minimum wage, which also varies state-by-state.
Here is the break-down on North Carolina law, which is very similar the Florida law. Here is the link to each states Department of Labor websites, where you can look up each individual state's laws regarding wage deductions and garnishments. Look for links that say "Wage and Hour" acts.
I've had a few people contact me with claims that "stealing goes against Freeganism", and that taking trash out of dumpsters is the only thing that counts. I want to remind everyone that dumpster diving is illegal. Dumpsters are on private property and if you take something out of them, you are stealing. That's why so many Freegan websites, books, and zines caution divers to go at night, keep a low profile, and generally not be sketchy. You can get into legal trouble for going into a company trash can.
Shrinkage is what businesses call the loss of items due to theft, loss, or damage. If an item is damaged because the stocker drops it, it goes into the trash, where a Freegan might choose to steal it. If an item rolls under the frozen pizza cooler and disappears, it's chalked up to shrinkage. If an item is taken from the shelf (stolen), that's part of shrinkage too. Although I want to make it clear that taking things from the shelf is not something I recommend or support, I do want to point out that taking it from the dumpster is just as illegal.
I'm currently sitting in a cafe in Florida and have a friend waiting on me to finish this rant, so I'm going to wrap it up for now. I just wanted to point a couple of things out real quick while I had some internet access. I'll elaborate on this later. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Stealing
Let me preface this by saying that I do not condone stealing. From an individual, a local business, or a large corporation. Stealing basically gets thieves into trouble and I don't support that, but since it has it's place in a Freegan lifestyle, I want to talk about it from a perspective of practicality and protest.
It is entirely possible to live Freegan without ever stealing, and it's possible to live Freegan only by stealing.
There is a very good book produced by the Crimethinc. collective called "Days of War, Nights of Love", which is a romantic introduction to an Anarchist lifestyle and covers many topics- from insurrection, religion, sex and love, and travel. There is also a chapter entirely devoted to shoplifting. I'd love to just quote the entire thing here, since it's so great, but you can click on that link just as easily as I can.
Since many people in America live Freegan lifestyles as a form of silent protest against corporations, I think it's important to note that stealing is basically the only form of effective direct action (as Crimethinc. points out). If you've ever been to a protest or similar action, you probably know that feeling of quasi-failure that they tend to end with. Maybe some of the goals were met, but personally I've never been to an action that was 100% successful. Even boycotts tend to be lackluster. No matter how many people claim to hate WalMart, very few can truthfully claim to never shop there.
How does shoplifting function as direct action?
According to an online lawyer source, the effects of shoplifting cost U.S. businesses $16 billion per year. (50% of thefts are contributed to teenagers, and it's estimated that 90% of the population has stolen something in their lifetimes.)
If it is true that one in three businesses fail directly due to shoplifting, then clearly this is an effective way of bringing a business down. If shoplifting was targeted to larger corporations only (harder to bring down than a local business who may not be able to factor as much into loss prevention than a place like, say, WalMart) you can see how it would impact them.
This is why shoplifting is both "bad" and "good". Properly directed, it can have a profound effect on companies and businesses that may be hurting the community, or even the planet.
As a Freegan with a political agenda, it might seem more logical to steal food than to dumpster it. It depends on an individual's priorities and how they interpret the impact that companies have on the planet.
"Shoplifting from large corporations is easiest means of organically redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Shoplifting is both an easy way of punishing corporations that deliberately destroy the environment, exploit and abuse laborers, and destroy communities and local culture, and an effective way of acquiring resources to give to the impoverished victims of capitalist oppression."
OK, so we're hurting corporations. Great! But aren't we basically screwing employees out of fair pay since the store now has to make up for lost profit?
No! Employees are (generally) payed by the hour, not by the amount of product that is sold. Not that corporations have a rich history of doing things legally...but legally a company cannot pass off it's losses to the employee, who is probably already making minimum wage. By the time an employee is paid, the product has all been paid for.
The amount that a store loses due to damage, theft, or loss is call "shrinkage". Markups on products may occur to account for loss, either projected or actual. If you've ever worked in retail, you probably have some idea as to how much companies mark up product. It tends to be something around 150%. Most of this is done for pure profit, and not because of some horrible trend in theft of that particular item. A company may blame markups on thieves, but this is only a deterrent. Theft tends to happen more frequently in recessed economies. If prices are already inflated by 150%, the item already costs too much. Add economic collapse, and the item is then too expensive by default. Perhaps now it's stolen because the company was greedy in the first place by giving it a ridiculous markup. Who's to blame for that? I would say...not the consumer or the thief. And, if a person is already Freegan, what does it matter how much the item costs? As Crimethinc. puts it- "Shoplifting is a refusal of the exchange economy. It is a denial that people deserve to eat, live, and die based on how effectively they are able to exchange their labor and capital with others. It is a denial that a monetary value can be ascribed to everything, that having a piece of delicious chocolate in your mouth is worth exactly fifty cents or that an hour of one person's life can really be worth ten dollars more than that of another person. It is a refusal to accept the capitalist system, in which workers have to buy back the products of their own labor at a profit to the owners of capital, who thus get them coming and going. Shoplifting says NO to all the objectionable features that have come to characterize the modern corporation. It is an expression of discontent". The same could be said for Freeganism.
Back when I had a job, making X amount of dollars per hour, I was also buying my food. I found myself in stores thinking in terms of hours rather than dollars. Should I buy this thing that cost me two hours of my life? How long would I have to stand at my job to be able to afford this thing? I don't want to break up my life into increments of value like that. The only thing I have in this world is my life, and I'm not going to put a price on it. My time is priceless. It isn't worth 500 Twinkies, or 200 bags of coffee, or a new car. Think about this for a second: How much is your life worth? Put a price on it, right now. If you can, then there is something seriously wrong with this society. If you can't, and you agree that your life can't be priced, then I've proven my point.
This is why I am against working for wages. Someone else (who doesn't really care about you at all) is putting a value on your time on this earth, by making you do things to serve their own purpose. Where does my life go? Why should I spend it living the dream of someone else? Why wouldn't I use my precious time to do the things that mean the most to me? It's criminal that so many mothers and fathers are taken out of their children's lives for this purpose. A child grows up lacking parents because they have chosen to put a value on their time. If we're going to value time, shouldn't time spent playing with your son or daughter trump the time spend making sandwiches, or punching numbers into a computer database?
Freeganism isn't just about free food for me. It's about taking back what is mine. No one should have to work in the systems that are set up now. That's not the say that work is inherently bad. Work is great. It feels wonderful to labor over something that you are passionate about. This is what modern workers refer to as "hobbies". I think it should be the other way around.
Do I recommend that everyone go out and dig in the trash for food, or steal clothes from a store? No. That's not that way it is now. Neither the Capitalist system or a Freegan lifestyle is fully sustainable alone. There needs to be a happy medium. One in which we all realize that our time here is our own.
It is entirely possible to live Freegan without ever stealing, and it's possible to live Freegan only by stealing.
There is a very good book produced by the Crimethinc. collective called "Days of War, Nights of Love", which is a romantic introduction to an Anarchist lifestyle and covers many topics- from insurrection, religion, sex and love, and travel. There is also a chapter entirely devoted to shoplifting. I'd love to just quote the entire thing here, since it's so great, but you can click on that link just as easily as I can.
Since many people in America live Freegan lifestyles as a form of silent protest against corporations, I think it's important to note that stealing is basically the only form of effective direct action (as Crimethinc. points out). If you've ever been to a protest or similar action, you probably know that feeling of quasi-failure that they tend to end with. Maybe some of the goals were met, but personally I've never been to an action that was 100% successful. Even boycotts tend to be lackluster. No matter how many people claim to hate WalMart, very few can truthfully claim to never shop there.
How does shoplifting function as direct action?
According to an online lawyer source, the effects of shoplifting cost U.S. businesses $16 billion per year. (50% of thefts are contributed to teenagers, and it's estimated that 90% of the population has stolen something in their lifetimes.)
If it is true that one in three businesses fail directly due to shoplifting, then clearly this is an effective way of bringing a business down. If shoplifting was targeted to larger corporations only (harder to bring down than a local business who may not be able to factor as much into loss prevention than a place like, say, WalMart) you can see how it would impact them.
This is why shoplifting is both "bad" and "good". Properly directed, it can have a profound effect on companies and businesses that may be hurting the community, or even the planet.
As a Freegan with a political agenda, it might seem more logical to steal food than to dumpster it. It depends on an individual's priorities and how they interpret the impact that companies have on the planet.
"Shoplifting from large corporations is easiest means of organically redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Shoplifting is both an easy way of punishing corporations that deliberately destroy the environment, exploit and abuse laborers, and destroy communities and local culture, and an effective way of acquiring resources to give to the impoverished victims of capitalist oppression."
OK, so we're hurting corporations. Great! But aren't we basically screwing employees out of fair pay since the store now has to make up for lost profit?
No! Employees are (generally) payed by the hour, not by the amount of product that is sold. Not that corporations have a rich history of doing things legally...but legally a company cannot pass off it's losses to the employee, who is probably already making minimum wage. By the time an employee is paid, the product has all been paid for.
The amount that a store loses due to damage, theft, or loss is call "shrinkage". Markups on products may occur to account for loss, either projected or actual. If you've ever worked in retail, you probably have some idea as to how much companies mark up product. It tends to be something around 150%. Most of this is done for pure profit, and not because of some horrible trend in theft of that particular item. A company may blame markups on thieves, but this is only a deterrent. Theft tends to happen more frequently in recessed economies. If prices are already inflated by 150%, the item already costs too much. Add economic collapse, and the item is then too expensive by default. Perhaps now it's stolen because the company was greedy in the first place by giving it a ridiculous markup. Who's to blame for that? I would say...not the consumer or the thief. And, if a person is already Freegan, what does it matter how much the item costs? As Crimethinc. puts it- "Shoplifting is a refusal of the exchange economy. It is a denial that people deserve to eat, live, and die based on how effectively they are able to exchange their labor and capital with others. It is a denial that a monetary value can be ascribed to everything, that having a piece of delicious chocolate in your mouth is worth exactly fifty cents or that an hour of one person's life can really be worth ten dollars more than that of another person. It is a refusal to accept the capitalist system, in which workers have to buy back the products of their own labor at a profit to the owners of capital, who thus get them coming and going. Shoplifting says NO to all the objectionable features that have come to characterize the modern corporation. It is an expression of discontent". The same could be said for Freeganism.
Back when I had a job, making X amount of dollars per hour, I was also buying my food. I found myself in stores thinking in terms of hours rather than dollars. Should I buy this thing that cost me two hours of my life? How long would I have to stand at my job to be able to afford this thing? I don't want to break up my life into increments of value like that. The only thing I have in this world is my life, and I'm not going to put a price on it. My time is priceless. It isn't worth 500 Twinkies, or 200 bags of coffee, or a new car. Think about this for a second: How much is your life worth? Put a price on it, right now. If you can, then there is something seriously wrong with this society. If you can't, and you agree that your life can't be priced, then I've proven my point.
This is why I am against working for wages. Someone else (who doesn't really care about you at all) is putting a value on your time on this earth, by making you do things to serve their own purpose. Where does my life go? Why should I spend it living the dream of someone else? Why wouldn't I use my precious time to do the things that mean the most to me? It's criminal that so many mothers and fathers are taken out of their children's lives for this purpose. A child grows up lacking parents because they have chosen to put a value on their time. If we're going to value time, shouldn't time spent playing with your son or daughter trump the time spend making sandwiches, or punching numbers into a computer database?
Freeganism isn't just about free food for me. It's about taking back what is mine. No one should have to work in the systems that are set up now. That's not the say that work is inherently bad. Work is great. It feels wonderful to labor over something that you are passionate about. This is what modern workers refer to as "hobbies". I think it should be the other way around.
Do I recommend that everyone go out and dig in the trash for food, or steal clothes from a store? No. That's not that way it is now. Neither the Capitalist system or a Freegan lifestyle is fully sustainable alone. There needs to be a happy medium. One in which we all realize that our time here is our own.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
