Harming others is moral?

For the sake of completeness, our brief survey needs to look at the last of the examples I raised a few posts ago. If we agree that harming others is not right, what precisely do we mean by that?

I'm pretty sure we would all agree that hitting someone with the intention to hurt them, pushing someone in front of a bus, shooting them with a gun, and more would all be considered harmful. In each and every case there is the intent to cause discomfort or pain in the recipient of our attention. That's all pretty straightforward. When we think back over the past few points, it will become clear that we all come to agreement rather quickly and there is little debate about all matters physical. If the body or property of an individual is concerned, we are quick to recognize the wrongness of the acts being committed. The problem is, however, that most of what goes on in life and most of what there is in the world simply can't be seen. It lies beyond our physical senses, but it is no less real. For example:

If you tell your child (or student, or co-worker, or ) everyday that s/he is stupid. Is this harming them? What if they start believing it and then even start acting like it? Does it then become OK because we are correct in our observations? What about other forms of psychological coercion or abuse? Aren't these just as harmful. What about harsh words? Yelling? Cursing? Isn't it possible to be just as aggressive verbally as it is to be aggressive physically? I think we would all agree that it is.

Why is it then, that there are really no specific laws to cover these cases? We could say that the other laws cover them, but if they did, why are so few people tried and found guilty of these crimes?

What about things like, working overtime without pay? or insisting an employee work longer hours and not record them? Isn't that harmful to the person as well? What about insisting on poor working conditions and not providing any kind of compensation or insurance to cover the negative side effects? What about insisting that an employee work so long and hard that his or her family suffers? What about threatening an employee regularly with firing if they don't work harder? Or can we consider forcing an employee to perform an illegal act under threat of retribution (e.g. firing) ... can we consider that "harming others"? I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. And I think if we all stop for a moment and think about it, we all realize that there any number of situations and circumstances in each of our lives in which we felt "abused" in some way by those who we thought were, or should have been, concerned with our welfare. Yes, these, too, are immoral acts and we tolerate them again and again and again. My question is why?

Naturally, I can't speak for anyone in particular, but generally speaking it would seem to me that we feel helpless and powerless in the face of the threat or the perpetrator. But, taking a stand, speaking up, or even taking sides is what is required of us. When we fail to "do what is right" we contribute to the growing immorality of the world around us. I'm pretty sure that's not what any of us really want, but I'm just as sure that most of us don't have the slightest idea what to do about it.