3 ms·

If there were no enforcement of laws by police, it would be in everyone's best interest to e.g. steal. Regardless of whether other people steal, you'd be better

If there were no enforcement of laws by police, it would be in everyone's best interest to e.g. steal. Regardless of whether other people steal, you'd be better off doing it. This makes no sense if you've ever interacted with other humans. There are several logical societal deterrents to stealing beside police. (Ostracism, retribution, foresight, modeling…)

boyaka 12y ago
Keeping the ni$#(!s out?
- colanderman 12y ago
  I'm sorry, what?
  - boyaka 12y ago
    It was sarcasm. I'm implying the most common societal deterrent used in the US, based on my observations. I honestly have no idea how we could deter stealing in society. If I were to be serious I'd say the biggest source of the issue is horribly imbalanced wealth and power, but really it's a tough problem to solve. I definitely believe that Law/Justice is important though!
Russell91 12y ago
You're missing the forest for the trees. The fact that some people's utility function supports not stealing by default is irrelevant to the structure of the game. It's still a prisoners dilemma and the existence of the police is justified in its efforts to modify the game's structure.
- tedks 12y ago
  It's not a prisoner's dilemma. A prisoner's dilemma is a wholly fictional and game-theoretic construct involving single, isolated interactions among perfectly rational agents. None of that has anything to do with humans. Humans never play the prisoner's dilemma because they're never any of the above concepts. Humans are certainly not perfectly rational, and almost always interact with the same set of people. You can't apply such an abstraction to public policy.
  - Russell91 12y ago
    Yea, right... You can't apply math to public policy - only stories and soft science. Math is absolutely useless because it's abstract and ... "fictional".

3 ms·

If there were no enforcement of laws by police, it would be in everyone's best interest to e.g. steal. Regardless of whether other people steal, you'd be better

by colanderman 12y ago

boyaka 12y ago
Keeping the ni$#(!s out?
- colanderman 12y ago
  I'm sorry, what?
  - boyaka 12y ago
    It was sarcasm. I'm implying the most common societal deterrent used in the US, based on my observations. I honestly have no idea how we could deter stealing in society. If I were to be serious I'd say the biggest source of the issue is horribly imbalanced wealth and power, but really it's a tough problem to solve. I definitely believe that Law/Justice is important though!
Russell91 12y ago
You're missing the forest for the trees. The fact that some people's utility function supports not stealing by default is irrelevant to the structure of the game. It's still a prisoners dilemma and the existence of the police is justified in its efforts to modify the game's structure.
- tedks 12y ago
  It's not a prisoner's dilemma. A prisoner's dilemma is a wholly fictional and game-theoretic construct involving single, isolated interactions among perfectly rational agents. None of that has anything to do with humans. Humans never play the prisoner's dilemma because they're never any of the above concepts. Humans are certainly not perfectly rational, and almost always interact with the same set of people. You can't apply such an abstraction to public policy.
  - Russell91 12y ago
    Yea, right... You can't apply math to public policy - only stories and soft science. Math is absolutely useless because it's abstract and ... "fictional".