On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 01:54:22PM -0800, Fred Foldvary wrote:
> --- Eric Crampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> While we're at it, why don't we make it illegal for people to kill each
>> other. If it were illegal, with stiff fines, we'd surely get rid of
>> murder.
>
> Do you deny that we have less murder with laws penalizing it than if we had
> no such laws?
>
> If so, do you wish to eliminate all criminal codes?
>
I don't know about Eric, but I definitely think that
there would be less murders if there were no laws against them,
and similarly for robbery, rape, fraud, etc.
Crimes would instead be settled in civil courts,
and murderers would be greatly indebted to the heirs,
and the fact of criminals paying back their debt
would make the whole process economically efficient.
Someone who would refuse to accept responsibility for his deeds,
one who would deny facts established in courts, refuse to pay one's debts,
or one who would indulge in killing again,
this someone would be at war with all the peace-loving members of society,
and one would promptly be a casualty of that war.
If one knows one has killing urges, and does not want war,
one oneself will find a warrant, i.e. a specialized insurance company,
who will accept public responsibility for one not doing anything wrong again,
thus preventing war. The warrant might keep one under tight guard,
keep one in a jail (but then would be responsible for crimes committed
within the jail, too), etc., and be ready to pay any new debt
one would contract as well as help one pay his current debt.
In any case, it would be responsible before its customers, the convicts,
who themselves would be responsible before their victims.
Everyone would have interest in making the convicts as productive as possible
(not cleaning roads, but learning real jobs and making real money),
instead of humiliating them and turning them into hardened criminals.
There would be no "punishment". The whole penal "justice" system
is actually a school of crime, paid with tax money.
http://www.liberalia.com/htm/cm_criminals_punished.htm
[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
[ TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System | http://tunes.org ]
Toleration is not about believing that stupid people are intelligent,
it's about letting stupid people be victims of their own stupidity
rather than being victims of yours.
