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Making something illegal does create incentives against it, and if stealing cars weren't illegal I'm sure we'd see much more of it.
by cjbillington 9y ago
Making something illegal does create incentives against it, and if stealing cars weren't illegal I'm sure we'd see much more of it.
- drb91 9y agoGenerally stealing cars is clear-cut and easy to prosecute. The opposite is true for insider trading. As a result, things that look an awful lot like insider trading occur all the time without any interest from the SEC. I'm not very equipped to judge legally what is or is not a crime, but it does seem like there's a lot of leeway for people in control of public companies to effectively take money from their investors.
- jessaustin 9y agoYes but it's important that the "crime" of "insider trading" exist so that investors might imagine that executive aren't doing that every single day. Also it's important that the crime is totally discretionary so that prosecutors can punish every single non-executive who somehow gets wind of non-public information while never bothering executives who donate to the right PACs.
- jessaustin 9y agoIt's kind of a fascinating thought experiment, to imagine our society changed in just that one way... lots of cars would have better security, anyway. Also one suspects there would be less demand for public parking, which would probably improve urban life.
- new_acct_ 9y agoWould we? We already know that harsher sentences doesn't necessarily translate into a better deterrent, and we know that when something becomes legal it doesn't mean increased activity. Most laws are just enforcing social norms