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> Not saying this is practical or even desirable, but clearly it would change people's priorities quite a bit. Historically, the problem with indefinite liabil

> Not saying this is practical or even desirable, but clearly it would change people's priorities quite a bit. Historically, the problem with indefinite liability has been government abuse and degradation of evidence (witnesses age and forget, documents are purged as part of regular scheduled maintenance, etc) which work together to create an unfair environment for the victim or perpetrator depending on the specifics of the case. Statutory limits "clear the docket" of potential cases, so to speak, which prevents the government from using an infinitely growing list of crimes and violations combined with selective enforcement to target "undesirable" or opposition elements within the populace. I do believe that indefinite liability for felonies and fiduciary responsibilities is very desirable in a fair justice system (balanced with a case by case evaluation of future criminal potential so that people who have reformed without prison aren't too heavily punished) but I'm afraid it will require a massive societal change. A system as complex and noisy as the justice system cannot both be an underfunded afterthought and fair. Kind of like healthcare makes up almost 20% of US GDP, so too should the justice system if we are ever to properly align the incentives of management and the public. With the seemingly unstoppable pervasiveness of data collection and surveillance, it might even be practical in the future to prosecute very old crimes in a fair way as long as enough resources are dedicated to enforcement and oversight. Unfortunately, the people who decide these things are extremely disincentivized from implementing the kind of sweeping changes we'd need.

Amygaz 9y ago
We are not in the same historical conditions. We have internet, darknet, social media, citizen journalists, cloud distribution... So maybe we don't need the traditional system. Maybe we need more people standing up against injustices, lack of accountability, and narcissits, something like #metoo. If we need a more traditional system, then solutions to lower the %GDP of healthcare exists, as every other country in the G20 are at 12%, and kept their growth on par with inflation, unlike the US. Government spending on public safety is around 2%, on par with the rest of the G20. So fixing the former would definitely go a long way in raising the later, placing the US in a leadership position in term of fixing many other problems. Somehow, as citizens, we need to find a way to incentivize our elected and unelected officials to do good, prioritize the majority of the population, and to take decisions that are sustainables. I don't really have a specific idea how to achieve that.

Amygaz 9y ago

We are not in the same historical conditions. We have internet, darknet, social media, citizen journalists, cloud distribution... So maybe we don't need the traditional system. Maybe we need more people standing up against injustices, lack of accountability, and narcissits, something like #metoo. If we need a more traditional system, then solutions to lower the %GDP of healthcare exists, as every other country in the G20 are at 12%, and kept their growth on par with inflation, unlike the US. Government spending on public safety is around 2%, on par with the rest of the G20. So fixing the former would definitely go a long way in raising the later, placing the US in a leadership position in term of fixing many other problems. Somehow, as citizens, we need to find a way to incentivize our elected and unelected officials to do good, prioritize the majority of the population, and to take decisions that are sustainables. I don't really have a specific idea how to achieve that.