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I think it’s continuous for people too. Do we ever drive faster than the speed limit? Cross a street outside of a defined crosswalk? Do we voluntarily report al

I think it’s continuous for people too. Do we ever drive faster than the speed limit? Cross a street outside of a defined crosswalk? Do we voluntarily report all our out-of-state purchases on state taxes? If we sell something on Craigslist, do we always report that as income? I think a lot of people also have an optimal level of law breakage.

sokoloff 5y ago
Selling some personal property at a loss (as is typical) is not income. The other examples are good ones.
- snowwrestler 5y ago
  People make money on Craigslist, selling services for example.
hellotomyrars 5y ago
I agree there is a spectrum of compliance for your average person with the letter of the law and the reality of everyday life (and the meaningful consequence of breaking them). Jaywalking is very unlikely to have any meaningful impact to anyone, and mostly unlikely to be enforced. But the big thing that separates your everyday person and companies is that corporations will gladly and willfully break the law, even in cases where they weigh the risk (perhaps they have a legal argument about how it’s not actually breaking the law, but it’s probably paper thin) because it can often be more profitable to commit the crime. and pay whatever fine is imposed than not commit the crime in the first place. It is incredibly rare for anyone to go to jail or be prosecuted individually for corporate crimes, and so the risk to any particular individual is exceedingly low. I can’t really think of any reasonable example where I could commit a crime as an individual and come out the other side with a net positive, despite being caught/prosecuted. Corporations aren’t playing with the same deck, and their bad behavior is constantly rewarded. Sure, they can sometimes go over the line and tank the entire operation but that is far and away the exception instead of the rule.

sokoloff 5y ago

Selling some personal property at a loss (as is typical) is not income. The other examples are good ones.

snowwrestler 5y ago
People make money on Craigslist, selling services for example.

hellotomyrars 5y ago

I agree there is a spectrum of compliance for your average person with the letter of the law and the reality of everyday life (and the meaningful consequence of breaking them). Jaywalking is very unlikely to have any meaningful impact to anyone, and mostly unlikely to be enforced. But the big thing that separates your everyday person and companies is that corporations will gladly and willfully break the law, even in cases where they weigh the risk (perhaps they have a legal argument about how it’s not actually breaking the law, but it’s probably paper thin) because it can often be more profitable to commit the crime. and pay whatever fine is imposed than not commit the crime in the first place. It is incredibly rare for anyone to go to jail or be prosecuted individually for corporate crimes, and so the risk to any particular individual is exceedingly low. I can’t really think of any reasonable example where I could commit a crime as an individual and come out the other side with a net positive, despite being caught/prosecuted. Corporations aren’t playing with the same deck, and their bad behavior is constantly rewarded. Sure, they can sometimes go over the line and tank the entire operation but that is far and away the exception instead of the rule.