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I concur with the wisdom of software engineering. How could all of those lawyers and governors of men have gotten it so wrong? Nothing is more democratic and s

by ABCLAW 8y ago

I concur with the wisdom of software engineering. How could all of those lawyers and governors of men have gotten it so wrong? Nothing is more democratic and stable than a system where bad agents only need to convince one podunk town which can locally supercede federal legislation to legalize kickbacks and completely break everything.

carlmr 8y ago
You can still have an overarching framework for big, unchanging things. The more local you go with your bribery, the more money you need to spend on individuals and the less influence you buy. Right now it's perfect for bribery, where you only need to bribe a select few and you can destroy a whole country. And those lawyers and governors haven't gotten it wrong, they get those bribes they want and don't need to really answer to their voters. Perfect. For them.
- ABCLAW 8y ago
  >Right now it's perfect for bribery, where you only need to bribe a select few and you can destroy a whole country. There are plenty of fraud reporting (not small scale stuff, we're talking commissions, etc.) that describe how municipalities are functionally captured. It is done today, but on a scale far smaller than what your plan allows. Also, since the stakes are smaller, the oversight is smaller, which means there's more, but less impactful fraud at that level. With your plan, we'd have more, but now potentially even more impactful fraud. You seem to believe you need to bribe ALL municipal-level politicians to get what you want. That's not the case. One jurisdiction is enough for most ends. As for price, you've just created competition for corruption among every county. That drives prices down, not up. Now that the attack surface is huge and the prices have plummeted, what do you think happens next? This is one counterargument, but there's a ton more. In short, every co-ordination problem now has no venue to be solved unless it falls under your umbrella of 'big, unchanging things', and sadly a lot of co-ordination problems just plain aren't that simple. As a bit of a double whammy, co-ordination problems underlie a large portion (if not the overwhelming majority) of our issues in social systems. Removing the government's ability to act on them is fatal to the government's ability to govern.

by ABCLAW 8y ago

carlmr 8y ago

You can still have an overarching framework for big, unchanging things. The more local you go with your bribery, the more money you need to spend on individuals and the less influence you buy. Right now it's perfect for bribery, where you only need to bribe a select few and you can destroy a whole country. And those lawyers and governors haven't gotten it wrong, they get those bribes they want and don't need to really answer to their voters. Perfect. For them.

ABCLAW 8y ago
>Right now it's perfect for bribery, where you only need to bribe a select few and you can destroy a whole country. There are plenty of fraud reporting (not small scale stuff, we're talking commissions, etc.) that describe how municipalities are functionally captured. It is done today, but on a scale far smaller than what your plan allows. Also, since the stakes are smaller, the oversight is smaller, which means there's more, but less impactful fraud at that level. With your plan, we'd have more, but now potentially even more impactful fraud. You seem to believe you need to bribe ALL municipal-level politicians to get what you want. That's not the case. One jurisdiction is enough for most ends. As for price, you've just created competition for corruption among every county. That drives prices down, not up. Now that the attack surface is huge and the prices have plummeted, what do you think happens next? This is one counterargument, but there's a ton more. In short, every co-ordination problem now has no venue to be solved unless it falls under your umbrella of 'big, unchanging things', and sadly a lot of co-ordination problems just plain aren't that simple. As a bit of a double whammy, co-ordination problems underlie a large portion (if not the overwhelming majority) of our issues in social systems. Removing the government's ability to act on them is fatal to the government's ability to govern.