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Comment by dTal | Hacker News Reader

"Financial violence" is a hell of a rhetorical turn. You don't get to redefine "violence" into anything you don't like, and you don't get to assault someone just because you think they're costing your business money. That's not a road we want to go down, as a society.

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I had my entire life savings stolen by an ex-fiancée. My entire life was turned upside down, and every aspect of my life made public in the courts. I say that I was financially raped, because the experience gave me PTSD and worse.

This person sure has hell experienced what I would term financial violence. His business was being assaulted regularly. His government let it happen.

Honestly, he should have sprayed down the town police and politicians. They utterly failed both the woman and the business owner in this case.

“I killed off all of my competitors, you see, they were committing financial violence against me by having better products, no one wanted to buy from me anymore”

> You don't get to redefine "violence" into anything you don't like

How is the term "financial violence" any worse about that than, e.g., "structural violence"?

Structural violence arguably causes death and bodily injury at a large scale. Surely you can see the difference there.

Financial crimes absolutely can cause death and bodily injury on a large scale. Madoff's ponzi scheme caused multiple suicides, for example, including Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, and Charles Murphy. Then there are the thousands of people who suddenly could not afford healthcare, or lost their home.

and poverty doesn't?

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