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By sheer coincidence I’ve been reading World War Z and it’s amazing how in the real world we’re making the same mistakes that countries in the book made against

By sheer coincidence I’ve been reading World War Z and it’s amazing how in the real world we’re making the same mistakes that countries in the book made against the zombies. Of course the situation is entirely different, but it’s interesting. Why doesn’t the government actually just enforce rules? So many lockdowns, mandates and laws but so little enforcement, or the penalty is not commensurate with the risk. What’s the point?

mumblemumble 6y ago
> Why doesn’t the government actually just enforce rules? Because there is no government to enforce the rules. Only a loose aggregation of individuals, each with their own personal interests. Those interests often include things like, "I don't want to do anything that might anger people and lose me the next election," or, "If I cite someone for this, I am going to have even more paperwork to do when I get back to the station." This way of thinking about how civic institutions behave becomes particularly important in a country like the USA whose cultural values tend to place individual freedom above many other things, including civic duty.
- gagege 6y ago
  Unless you open the Pandora's Box of Martial Law under a dictatorship.
beaconstudios 6y ago
and other incentives too - enforcement is going to be hard on the scale of "everyone on the planet", but I wonder why people who got the cough went back to work. Would it have hurt their employment prospects to take the time off? Did they have responsibilities that were not able to be covered by coworkers? Understanding why people don't follow the rules by themselves is important - tweaking the incentives in the system could help to lower the R rate, where I think having the police monitor the social lives of everyone on the planet is not a viable solution.
Ericson2314 6y ago
Everyone talks about all the bad things police do. Not enough people talk about the good things the police don't do because they are too busy doing the the bad things.
- jcims 6y ago
  Eh, there's approximately one police officer per 400 people in the US. Seems unlikely they are going to be able to enforce much of anything here.
chasd00 6y ago
The US president (or other authorities) can't just make new laws out of thin air, that whole democracy thing gets in the way. Short of rolling tanks down the streets of cities and towns everywhere you're not going to be able to enforce much. Even then, with tanks on the streets you have a very very bad situation on your hands. People in the US don't like having liberties taken away without due process and representation. And by "don't like" i mean will fight to the death over it. Edit: also the federal government can't just "demand" things of the states. That whole republic thing gets in the way there.
- newfeatureok 6y ago
  I’m not talking about the federal government. Most major cities and states have already passed temporary mandates and orders that are not being enforced.

mumblemumble 6y ago

> Why doesn’t the government actually just enforce rules? Because there is no government to enforce the rules. Only a loose aggregation of individuals, each with their own personal interests. Those interests often include things like, "I don't want to do anything that might anger people and lose me the next election," or, "If I cite someone for this, I am going to have even more paperwork to do when I get back to the station." This way of thinking about how civic institutions behave becomes particularly important in a country like the USA whose cultural values tend to place individual freedom above many other things, including civic duty.

gagege 6y ago
Unless you open the Pandora's Box of Martial Law under a dictatorship.

beaconstudios 6y ago

and other incentives too - enforcement is going to be hard on the scale of "everyone on the planet", but I wonder why people who got the cough went back to work. Would it have hurt their employment prospects to take the time off? Did they have responsibilities that were not able to be covered by coworkers? Understanding why people don't follow the rules by themselves is important - tweaking the incentives in the system could help to lower the R rate, where I think having the police monitor the social lives of everyone on the planet is not a viable solution.

Ericson2314 6y ago

Everyone talks about all the bad things police do. Not enough people talk about the good things the police don't do because they are too busy doing the the bad things.

jcims 6y ago
Eh, there's approximately one police officer per 400 people in the US. Seems unlikely they are going to be able to enforce much of anything here.

chasd00 6y ago

The US president (or other authorities) can't just make new laws out of thin air, that whole democracy thing gets in the way. Short of rolling tanks down the streets of cities and towns everywhere you're not going to be able to enforce much. Even then, with tanks on the streets you have a very very bad situation on your hands. People in the US don't like having liberties taken away without due process and representation. And by "don't like" i mean will fight to the death over it. Edit: also the federal government can't just "demand" things of the states. That whole republic thing gets in the way there.

newfeatureok 6y ago
I’m not talking about the federal government. Most major cities and states have already passed temporary mandates and orders that are not being enforced.