4 ms·

"There's no point in passing laws, because people will get around them." Why does anyone believe this?

nordsieck 4y ago
> "There's no point in passing laws, because people will get around them." > Why does anyone believe this? Good laws are great. And there are plenty of them. But passing bad laws just because "we need to do something" is worse than doing nothing.
blooalien 4y ago
Mostly despair from seeing it happen far more often than it really should due to rampant corrupting "in high places" I'd imagine…
oceanplexian 4y ago
Because ultimately a “law” is nothing other than words on paper that only exist in reality because the government is willing to use force to make it so. Some people seem to think that people are like computers and “law” is the programming. No, people will continue to mine Bitcoin, or do drugs, or whatever other illegal thing up until the point where the FBI breaks down a door and some people get shot or (best case) thrown behind bars. My opinion is that laws are nothing other than a form of violence. If you support violence against people for running a computer program I don’t know what to say.
- pixl97 4y ago
  Law is like computer code, adding more of it to your application doesn't necessarily make it better.
- derac 4y ago
  What if the computer program hurts people / violates their rights?
gojomo 4y ago
When you pass laws that can't practically be enforced, or that everyone figures the insiders/incumbents have already tilted in their favor with de jure or de facto immunities – such that they're only ever used unevenly against disfavored upstarts/outsiders – it erodes confidence in laws & law-enforcement more generally. Under a majoritarian system, even if >50% claim to want a law in polls or ballots, but far-more-than-50% of the same people (or even just: the relevant targets of the law) can flout it without consequences, that's typically a bad law.

> "There's no point in passing laws, because people will get around them." > Why does anyone believe this? Good laws are great. And there are plenty of them. But passing bad laws just because "we need to do something" is worse than doing nothing.

blooalien 4y ago

Mostly despair from seeing it happen far more often than it really should due to rampant corrupting "in high places" I'd imagine…

oceanplexian 4y ago

Because ultimately a “law” is nothing other than words on paper that only exist in reality because the government is willing to use force to make it so. Some people seem to think that people are like computers and “law” is the programming. No, people will continue to mine Bitcoin, or do drugs, or whatever other illegal thing up until the point where the FBI breaks down a door and some people get shot or (best case) thrown behind bars. My opinion is that laws are nothing other than a form of violence. If you support violence against people for running a computer program I don’t know what to say.

pixl97 4y ago
Law is like computer code, adding more of it to your application doesn't necessarily make it better.
derac 4y ago
What if the computer program hurts people / violates their rights?

gojomo 4y ago

When you pass laws that can't practically be enforced, or that everyone figures the insiders/incumbents have already tilted in their favor with de jure or de facto immunities – such that they're only ever used unevenly against disfavored upstarts/outsiders – it erodes confidence in laws & law-enforcement more generally. Under a majoritarian system, even if >50% claim to want a law in polls or ballots, but far-more-than-50% of the same people (or even just: the relevant targets of the law) can flout it without consequences, that's typically a bad law.