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>[P]eople might want to keep a bad law if they continue to make money by snitching. In fact, money is the exact wrong incentive for this sort of thing. I've sa

>[P]eople might want to keep a bad law if they continue to make money by snitching. In fact, money is the exact wrong incentive for this sort of thing. I've said elsewhere the optimal mechanism here is for that money to be paid to the snitcher, from the person who is being turned in. This would lead us to assume that for most crimes of a personal nature, we would have about as many people losing money due to the law as making money due to it, and so the effect cancels out. In situations where many more people make money and only a select few are losing big, well... Somehow I feel like that's usually for the best anyway. See my other comments on eg the runaway success of the False Claims Act. Or just consider the class action lawsuit and whether you think it fills a valuable role in society. >Think a little harder and see if you can imagine why a law that isn't strongly enforced still might exist. Thanks for letting me pick the reason, that's very thoughtful of you. Obviously it's because said law being strongly enforced would cause such a public backlash that it would quickly get repealed in its entirety, and thus further erode the monopoly on violence the state holds over its citizenry. Cops then have fewer en passants they can pull when they don't follow procedure, etc etc. I'm glad we're in agreement on this.

mhuffman 1y ago
>I've said elsewhere the optimal mechanism here is for that money to be paid to the snitcher, from the person who is being turned in. In some cases, which seem like a good idea like corporate malfeasance whistleblowers or government grift whistleblowers. This is because the people paid by our tax dollars would be at a disadvantage compared to an insider in the company. In others, you could see the direction it must go. >Thanks for letting me pick the reason, that's very thoughtful of you. Cheers! >Obviously it's because said law being strongly enforced would cause such a public backlash that it would quickly get repealed in its entirety, and thus further erode the monopoly on violence the state holds over its citizenry. Cops then have fewer en passants they can pull when they don't follow procedure, etc etc. I'm glad we're in agreement on this. There might very well be laws like that. However, let me offer a non-controversial and obvious one. Speed limits. Many places have 65mph listed as a speed limit. Everyone knows you are not allowed to go faster. However very few place will pull you over for going 66mph or even 70mph. If they started pulling over everyone going 70 in a 65 there would not be "such a public backlash that it would quickly get repealed in its entirety" because we all know and they all knew they were breaking the law. But it isn't enforced in an authoritarian way because we have different vehicles, sometimes you need to pass, and frankly 70 and 65 just aren't that big of a problem. But almost everyone would agree that we do need a speed limit, although they might not agree on the number and a number has to be picked. Now, I don't want to assume your political leanings, but I am getting some strong libertarian vibes. And you seem like a nice and thoughtful person, so maybe bad ideas don't even occur to you because you are honest and just don't think that way. But imagine, or go ask grok, some other ways this could work out. And while you are at it, imagine a law that did not effect all citizens the same. Now imagine that a bad law could effect a relatively small group much more than others. In what way could they cause affect a backlash that would quickly get a law repealed in its entirety? Using money to incentivize any public action on behalf of the government should be a sort of last-resort situation where it makes sense and the people already being paid to do it can't for some reason. This is a very libertarian idea, in fact. A more reasonable idea, although much less libertarian, would be to pass a law that makes it where cars can not idle for more than a specified amount of time in certain situations, but that would come with its own can of worms don't you think? And I personally wouldn't be for such a law. In fact I am against the snitch on idlers law. If someone wants to pay $7 a gallon for gas to set there and idle it away, why shouldn't they be able to? How is it different than them driving the same gas away?
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
  Re/ the speed limit, I'm afraid I simply don't understand. Why not just raise the speed limit to 70 instead of having everyone lie? If everyone starts then doing 75, why not raise it again? Eventually you'll hit a breakeven point. Considering that most highway accidents happen because two people disagree about the speed they should be driving at, and considering that fatalities and accident severity in such accidents scales with something crazy like the square or even the cube of the speed you're going at, this actually feels like the worst possible way to negotiate that. Conversely, under an enforcement regime where everyone is genuinely scared to go higher than 65, the worst case scenario is... Everyone does 65. Fewer accidents, and fewer fatalities from those accidents. Best case scenario is they rapidly revise up to 70 - 75 - wherever. Re/ "imagine that a bad law could effect a relatively small group much more than others", I think we would have to define more closely what a 'bad law' actually is to answer that first. Under this kind of fine-based regime, it would have to be something that targets a small group, unfairly, and manages to consistently extract a lot of money from them, which requires they have a lot of money to reliably extract in the first place - otherwise it stops being worth the effort to target them specifically. I guess you could imagine making lottery scratch tickets a fineable offense, and thereby target pensioners unfairly. That's the closest I got after 5 minutes of thinking about it. Re/ using money to incentivize public action - we have clashing moral intuitions on this, I definitely don't see it as a last resort. In fact I would far prefer it to be the first resort. Money is a much more efficient, scalable, precise, and robust way of handling things than e.g. sending people to prison (which we still have to pay for, by the way, prisons aren't cheap). Re/ the idler's law itself - You're allowed to be against it personally, that's fine. The people of New York City voted in favor of it, and they probably have good reasons for this that mostly only make sense to themselves. Personally, I've been to New York, and seen how cramped those streets are. It doesn't surprise me that some schmuck holding up half of 6th Avenue should be made to pay for it - they are likely causing thousands of dollars of cash flow loss per second because on who's late for work because of them. But even then, I don't live there. I don't actually have a good sense of this kind of thing. I defer to the wisdom of the locals here. Do as the Romans do.
  - mhuffman 1y ago
pjc50 1y ago
> See my other comments on eg the runaway success of the False Claims Act Could you link some examples of such comments because I can't find them, please? > Or just consider the class action lawsuit and whether you think it fills a valuable role in society. This is an odd one. They are extremely rare in the UK, but in practice I think we have better consumer protection because it's handled through ordinary politics and legislation, rather than litigation. ref. https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/what-status-class-actions-and-group-litigation-england https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/what-status-class-act... I also wonder how this is going to interact with politically connected people who are used to ignoring the law, such as Cuomo https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/06/16/no-mo-cuomo-scofflaw-ex-gov-caught-speeding-two-more-times-bringing-total-to-4-tix-in-3-months https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/06/16/no-mo-cuomo-scofflaw-...
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
  I had a discussion with gametorch about this topic where I mention the case of Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak. His comments got flagged, but I think he laid his assumptions and concern for the downstream effects on US culture bare, which is commendable. I'll cite some relevant news articles since finding the exact link is proving tough. [1]: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/biogen-inc-agrees-pay-900-million-settle-allegations-related-improper-physician-payments https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/biogen-inc-agrees-pa... " Biogen Inc. Agrees to Pay $900 Million to Settle Allegations Related to Improper Physician Payments" [2]: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-266-4-million-whistleblower-award-in-biogen-false-claims-act-suit-301634323.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-266-4-... "Largest-Ever $266.4 Million Whistleblower Award in Biogen False Claims Act Suit" [3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-26/biogen-to-pay-900-million-over-alleged-improper-doctor-payments https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-26/biogen-to... "Biogen Agrees to Pay $900 Million to Resolve Kickback Claims" You can also find more official information on the SEC whistleblower program, which I think the False Claims Act itself is under but might just be a mirror similarity, at [4]: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/whistleblower-program https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/whistleblower-pro... It's fascinating stuff.
  - 1y ago

mhuffman 1y ago

>I've said elsewhere the optimal mechanism here is for that money to be paid to the snitcher, from the person who is being turned in. In some cases, which seem like a good idea like corporate malfeasance whistleblowers or government grift whistleblowers. This is because the people paid by our tax dollars would be at a disadvantage compared to an insider in the company. In others, you could see the direction it must go. >Thanks for letting me pick the reason, that's very thoughtful of you. Cheers! >Obviously it's because said law being strongly enforced would cause such a public backlash that it would quickly get repealed in its entirety, and thus further erode the monopoly on violence the state holds over its citizenry. Cops then have fewer en passants they can pull when they don't follow procedure, etc etc. I'm glad we're in agreement on this. There might very well be laws like that. However, let me offer a non-controversial and obvious one. Speed limits. Many places have 65mph listed as a speed limit. Everyone knows you are not allowed to go faster. However very few place will pull you over for going 66mph or even 70mph. If they started pulling over everyone going 70 in a 65 there would not be "such a public backlash that it would quickly get repealed in its entirety" because we all know and they all knew they were breaking the law. But it isn't enforced in an authoritarian way because we have different vehicles, sometimes you need to pass, and frankly 70 and 65 just aren't that big of a problem. But almost everyone would agree that we do need a speed limit, although they might not agree on the number and a number has to be picked. Now, I don't want to assume your political leanings, but I am getting some strong libertarian vibes. And you seem like a nice and thoughtful person, so maybe bad ideas don't even occur to you because you are honest and just don't think that way. But imagine, or go ask grok, some other ways this could work out. And while you are at it, imagine a law that did not effect all citizens the same. Now imagine that a bad law could effect a relatively small group much more than others. In what way could they cause affect a backlash that would quickly get a law repealed in its entirety? Using money to incentivize any public action on behalf of the government should be a sort of last-resort situation where it makes sense and the people already being paid to do it can't for some reason. This is a very libertarian idea, in fact. A more reasonable idea, although much less libertarian, would be to pass a law that makes it where cars can not idle for more than a specified amount of time in certain situations, but that would come with its own can of worms don't you think? And I personally wouldn't be for such a law. In fact I am against the snitch on idlers law. If someone wants to pay $7 a gallon for gas to set there and idle it away, why shouldn't they be able to? How is it different than them driving the same gas away?

hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
Re/ the speed limit, I'm afraid I simply don't understand. Why not just raise the speed limit to 70 instead of having everyone lie? If everyone starts then doing 75, why not raise it again? Eventually you'll hit a breakeven point. Considering that most highway accidents happen because two people disagree about the speed they should be driving at, and considering that fatalities and accident severity in such accidents scales with something crazy like the square or even the cube of the speed you're going at, this actually feels like the worst possible way to negotiate that. Conversely, under an enforcement regime where everyone is genuinely scared to go higher than 65, the worst case scenario is... Everyone does 65. Fewer accidents, and fewer fatalities from those accidents. Best case scenario is they rapidly revise up to 70 - 75 - wherever. Re/ "imagine that a bad law could effect a relatively small group much more than others", I think we would have to define more closely what a 'bad law' actually is to answer that first. Under this kind of fine-based regime, it would have to be something that targets a small group, unfairly, and manages to consistently extract a lot of money from them, which requires they have a lot of money to reliably extract in the first place - otherwise it stops being worth the effort to target them specifically. I guess you could imagine making lottery scratch tickets a fineable offense, and thereby target pensioners unfairly. That's the closest I got after 5 minutes of thinking about it. Re/ using money to incentivize public action - we have clashing moral intuitions on this, I definitely don't see it as a last resort. In fact I would far prefer it to be the first resort. Money is a much more efficient, scalable, precise, and robust way of handling things than e.g. sending people to prison (which we still have to pay for, by the way, prisons aren't cheap). Re/ the idler's law itself - You're allowed to be against it personally, that's fine. The people of New York City voted in favor of it, and they probably have good reasons for this that mostly only make sense to themselves. Personally, I've been to New York, and seen how cramped those streets are. It doesn't surprise me that some schmuck holding up half of 6th Avenue should be made to pay for it - they are likely causing thousands of dollars of cash flow loss per second because on who's late for work because of them. But even then, I don't live there. I don't actually have a good sense of this kind of thing. I defer to the wisdom of the locals here. Do as the Romans do.
- mhuffman 1y ago

pjc50 1y ago

> See my other comments on eg the runaway success of the False Claims Act Could you link some examples of such comments because I can't find them, please? > Or just consider the class action lawsuit and whether you think it fills a valuable role in society. This is an odd one. They are extremely rare in the UK, but in practice I think we have better consumer protection because it's handled through ordinary politics and legislation, rather than litigation. ref. https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/what-status-class-actions-and-group-litigation-england https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/what-status-class-act... I also wonder how this is going to interact with politically connected people who are used to ignoring the law, such as Cuomo https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/06/16/no-mo-cuomo-scofflaw-ex-gov-caught-speeding-two-more-times-bringing-total-to-4-tix-in-3-months https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/06/16/no-mo-cuomo-scofflaw-...

hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
I had a discussion with gametorch about this topic where I mention the case of Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak. His comments got flagged, but I think he laid his assumptions and concern for the downstream effects on US culture bare, which is commendable. I'll cite some relevant news articles since finding the exact link is proving tough. [1]: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/biogen-inc-agrees-pay-900-million-settle-allegations-related-improper-physician-payments https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/biogen-inc-agrees-pa... " Biogen Inc. Agrees to Pay $900 Million to Settle Allegations Related to Improper Physician Payments" [2]: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-266-4-million-whistleblower-award-in-biogen-false-claims-act-suit-301634323.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-266-4-... "Largest-Ever $266.4 Million Whistleblower Award in Biogen False Claims Act Suit" [3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-26/biogen-to-pay-900-million-over-alleged-improper-doctor-payments https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-26/biogen-to... "Biogen Agrees to Pay $900 Million to Resolve Kickback Claims" You can also find more official information on the SEC whistleblower program, which I think the False Claims Act itself is under but might just be a mirror similarity, at [4]: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/whistleblower-program https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/whistleblower-pro... It's fascinating stuff.
- 1y ago