Is there something legal that you wish was not? For example, I believe cars should have a price tag and sell at that price across the board. It is absurd that you must spend an entire day negotiating how much they want to screw you with instead of paying what the vehicle costs. Nonetheless, a Redditor asked, “What is legal and should become illegal?” Here are the top-voted responses.
1. Unnecessarily Bright Dipped Headlights
“Every single morning. I have to resist the urge to flash my brights at people because I mistake their now regular bright lights for having their high beams on,” a user admitted. Several people agreed, sharing being blinded stories before another said, “And the car industry has known they are blinding drivers and just keep making their lights brighter and more dangerous.”
2. Hiding Ingredients in Food
One user answered, “Being allowed to hide ingredients in food by calling it natural flavors.” “And other toxic chemicals in skincare as fragrance,” another added.
“Marketing sugar content as zero percent because the serving size is so tiny. Tic Tacs, for example, are 95% sugar but say zero percent sugar on the label,” a third commenter said. Finally, a fourth commenter shared, “This makes life a nightmare for people with allergies not addressed in labeling laws.” I'm people.
3. Convenience Fees to Pay Bills and Do Taxes
One user expressed, “I just had to pay a deposit to get my parents an apartment, and I was charged almost $80 to use a credit card through their portal because that was the only option. No cash or check. Only credit card.”
Another shared, “My apartment complex charges me $75 to pay them their rent.”
4. Child Beauty Pageants
“Yes, it's child exploitation for every adult involved. What are they getting out of it exactly? They are all on a spectrum line with those who like children too much. In adult beauty pageants, the contestants are old enough and experienced enough to give informed consent to the exploitation,” a user said. “I read this as child abuse pageants.”
Another added, “Think of all the resources wasted on these things. We could be focusing children's attention toward more idealistic goals. Pump this money into STEAM initiatives and not into other goals. Teach future generations to value creativity, not a caked-up five-year-old. No child deserves this type of pressure or attention to their physicality.”
5. Advertising Prescription Drugs
One user responded, “This is illegal in the EU + UK, Switzerland, etc.” “It's illegal everywhere except the US and New Zealand,” added another. A third commenter admitted, “First time I went on holiday to the US, I couldn't believe how weird that was.”
Finally, a fourth commenter expressed, “In Canada, they can advertise drugs, but the advertisements can't say what the drug does, so they're just like weird lifestyle commercials.”
6. Siren and Horn Sounds On the Radio
“Yes! That should also include car-honking sounds on the radio. Years ago, I was driving alone, listening to the radio, when this ad came on that contained a lot of aggressive, frantic honking. There were no words, no music, just a lot of loud honking for the first 5-ish seconds of the ad. It scared me and made me slam my brakes.”
7. Subscription to an Email List Without a Previous Email Confirmation
A Redditor stated, “Or worse, you've unsubscribed from a mailing list, but the company changes to a new mass marketing provider and just hands over their entire list of emails they've ever collected.” “The amount of times I had to click sketchy links to unsubscribe from advertising is absurd,” another user agreed.
8. Volume Increases for Commercials
“Increasing the volume of commercials by twenty decibels,” one user replied. Someone believed it illegal, and another user clarified, “It's unlawful on BROADCAST TV. Streaming services don't fall under that regulation.”
9. Civil Asset Forfeiture
“You're free to go. However, your car and money are under arrest,” a user added. Another shared, “A friend of mine was busted selling pot years ago. They raided his mom's house and found $35K in a safe. It wasn't from the cannabis.”
“It was money his sister had been sending back to the family from her lucrative job in another state. So they took it and, while he was in jail, sent him a thank you card with a picture of the new police cruiser they'd bought with her money.”
10. Lying Politicians
It should be illegal to lie blatantly to voters while running for political office. We call it fraud and jail people for lying to gain financially. Yet we call it normal and allow politicians to lie to gain votes for political offices, which not only benefits them economically but also gives them enormous amounts of power to benefit and detriment others.
Then we wonder why political office often attracts the most fraudulent, sociopathic, and dishonest among us. Essentially, we have a neon sign over our political system saying, ‘If you enjoy committing fraud and are a pathological liar, please apply here. We will let you deceive as many of us as possible for more money and power than you can dream of.”
Honorable Mentions: Alcohol, MLMs, free trials that auto-renew when they run out, for-profit prisons, and Family Vloggers posting their children without consent. We hope you enjoyed this Reddit list of legal things they deem worthy of being illegal. Also, check out these fifteen addictions the world has accepted as okay.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.