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> For example, serious white collar crime, political corruption If you look at the actual legal outcome of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs cooking of Greec
by gutnor 10y ago
> For example, serious white collar crime, political corruption
If you look at the actual legal outcome of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs cooking of Greece books, Euribor Fraud, revolving doors between government a sweet consulting jobs, Panama papers, recurrent "tax" amnesty, ... it seems there is very little in common between what people think is illegal and what actually is. So what kind of deterrent would introducing death penalty actually achieve ? The fall guys would fall harder ?
- sevenless 10y agoEven just Bernie Madoff and the Libor crooks being executed would probably have a socially beneficial effect. But of course, you could equally say there is no point in having any laws if they are not enforced.
- humanrebar 10y ago> So what kind of deterrent would introducing death penalty actually achieve? The point is that the severity of the punishment must match the severity of the crime. Crooked people getting off easy is a different example of the same issue. In both cases, the legitimacy of the government is eroded. Sometimes this looks like people ignoring even more laws or voting for candidates that ignore the existing checks and balances. In more volatile cases, you could see the rise of tribal forces (including mafia and gangs), more revenge and honor killings, a full-on coup, or any number of other things.
- hx87 10y agoThe legal cost of committing a crime is something like (severity of punishment * likelihood of punishment). I suspect that the latter term is far, far more important to the legitimacy of a government, since it indicates competence whereas the former indicates stringency or leniency, and people respect a competent but lenient government far more than a harsh but incompetent one. Besides, life in prison is a harsher punishment than death.
- akiselev 10y ago>> Besides, life in prison is a harsher punishment than death. I'm sorry, WHAT?! You seem to have a gross misunderstanding about the permanency of death.
- gambiting 10y agoI would absolutely choose death over lifetime sentence in US prison system, absolutely and without hesitation,.
- stale2002 10y agoWell you are in the significant minority. The point is that most people disagree with you.
- hx87 10y ago> Well you are in the significant minority. Do you have evidence to back that up?
- stale2002 10y agoWell at the very least by the fact that most people in prison don't try to kill themselves. Some do, sure, but most don't. Or how about this. The vast majority of people who are being charged with the death penalty in the court of law, try to prevent that sentence from happening. If everyone prefers the death penalty, then why would they use their lawyers to sue and prevent it from happening?
- gambiting 10y agoI am sure you agree that most people sentenced to death try to overturn it entirely and go free, not convert it into life inprisonment.
- 10y ago
- ansible 10y agoAt least with respect to the 2008 financial crisis, there was actual fraud going on there. People were lying about lots of things. Doing it a little may be subject to breach of contract lawsuits. Doing it a lot is fraud, and can be prosecuted. Sadly, hardly anyone was indicted, so there's no point (yet) to debating the usefulness of the death penalty for white collar crimes.