A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

Post by seanflyon » Wed, Apr 08, 2015, 11:49 PM UTC

fixxer wrote: post #162

seanflyon wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, extracting value that doesn't belong to you, causing financial harm, but not physical harm. Sounds a lot like theft. If you walk into a bank with phony checks and walk out with money that isn't yours, how is that worse than walking in with a gun or sneaking in at night?

Sure, but theft is a subset of the crime in this case. Counterfeiting is a form of theft that literally destabilizes a regime. As jessaustin pointed out far more eloquently, my view is not novel. The fact that we have an organization within our government (the Secret Service) with a primary mandate of "defending the currency" should be enough for you to connect the dots and realize the counterfeiting is more than the…

Post by JoeAltmaier » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 3:07 AM UTC

fixxer wrote: post #188

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me, is this the government that created the NSA which undermined the entire internet, destroying trust and disrupting the smooth flow of information to a degree never dreamed of by any criminal in history? That government?

Yup. Same one. Doesn't matter. Straw man argument.

Post by JoeAltmaier » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 1:20 PM UTC

fixxer wrote: post #194

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the argument is one of hypocrisy. It would be reasonable to punish the government for 88 years or more.

As a citizen, I have a vested interest in seeing the currency protected, so this isn't "us versus the G". Your argument is irrelevant to this matter (regardless of how much I agree with your feelings about the NSA).

Post by fixxer » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 3:23 PM UTC

seanflyon wrote: post #191

fixxer wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but theft is a subset of the crime in this case. Counterfeiting is a form of theft that literally destabilizes a regime. As jessaustin pointed out far more eloquently, my view is not novel. The fact that we have an organization within our government (the Secret Service) with a primary mandate of "defending the currency" should be enough for you to connect the dots and realize the counterfeiting is more than the…

We all agree that counterfeiting is a serious problem, so of course there is a governmental agency that covers "Financial Crimes, covering missions such as prevention and investigation of counterfeiting of U.S. currency and U.S. treasury securities, and investigation of major fraud" (according to Wikipedia). I think you got to the heart of the matter when you wrote "Scale matters". Murdering millions of people is a b…

Post by onnoonno » Fri, Apr 10, 2015, 12:22 PM UTC

song wrote: post #117

onnoonno wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know but having lived in all three countries, I don't see that many differences in term of people's character that could explain the difference in murder rate. No offense, but could this be selection bias? You have certainly only talked to a selected subset of people.. I think if 80% of the U.S. population would want a thorough reform of their justice system, it would happen. What exactly would an 'external…

Sure, it might be a selection bias, I was a student in all three cases and, by definition, students tend to be more educated. What I mean by external factor is the laws, the way the criminal system is setup, the lack or not of reinsertion opportunities for ex-cons and so on. You might say that in a democracy all of this is decided by the people, but there's a certain inertia that sets in that mean that people have ve…