TLDR: A sufficient amount of ignorance about how insurance works can solve all crime through magic.
Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
11–20 of 75 posts
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#12There is a long history of this kind of thing and many great economists have talked about different version to make the legal system more efficient.
There are different ideas how to innovate and sometimes privatize certain aspects.
Some interesting reads that people might enjoy. David Friedman (son of Milton) has been studying this for quite a while. For example in he had this talk about how criminal law should be abolished in favor of more use of civil law.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KsMZbuGNj8
He has a whole book about different legal systems of different societies. A lot of his talks are very interesting.
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#13> I propose to instead privatize the detection, prosecution, and punishment of crime. Yes, because privatization of the prison system worked out so well, didn't it? So let's go the whole hog and privatize the entire justice system.
These two things are very different and if you don't have any smart arguments then why post at all?
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#14Yet we still suffer from a great deal of police corruption and mistreatment, because government employees can coordinate well to create a blue wall of silence. So, to fix one minor problem, we're getting rid of equality before law, and paving the way for feudalistic corporations, getting one step closer to Snow Crash? No, thanks.
Equality before law doesn't exist right now. Being rich carries with it connections and enhanced representation that gets one out of many crimes scot free that would be life-ruining to you or me.
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you're trading government-run prison for an insurance-run one?
Or increased premiums, or torture, or whatever. I think the idea is if you don't like what the insurance company uses as a threat of punishment you can just sign a contract with a different one.
> I think the idea is if you don't like what the insurance company uses as a threat of punishment you can just sign a contract with a different one.
It's more than that. The requirement to have such a contract with an insurance company gives people an incentive to not engage in behaviors that will make it more expensive for them to obtain such a contract, just as the requirement to have auto insurance in order to drive gives people an incentive to not engage in behaviors that will make it more expensive for them to obtain such insurance.
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#16A ridiculous proposal......
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#17My initial thought is that this would create a "wild west" type society where bounty hunters go around and have shootouts with criminals, but without police training. Also, how are cash fines going to work against broke criminals? "Oh, you stole a bunch of money because you have no money. Pay a fine"
The "wild west" was really not as wild as people think.
A nice book that explores a little how problems were actually solved in the wild west is:
> The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier
> https://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-West-Economics/dp/0804748...
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you're trading government-run prison for an insurance-run one?
Or increased premiums, or torture, or whatever. I think the idea is if you don't like what the insurance company uses as a threat of punishment you can just sign a contract with a different one.
This assumes that someone has the time to read full-length legal documents and comprehend them. A task that is difficult for a lawyer, someone who is not only trained, but paid to do such things. It also assumes that the market wouldn't stablize around an equilibrium that is good for the market and the companies, but bad for the individual -- something that frequently happens with regards to loan companies.
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I understood it, the legal liability insurance pays. The criminal then has to deal with whatever repercussions are laid out in their contract with the insurance company.
So you're trading government-run prison for an insurance-run one?
More or less. There are other formulations in which the insurance-function is bundled with other things (membership in an HOA-like structure, other protective services, etc.), but this is a fairly common scheme supported by a lot of anarcho-capitalist types. You can find some academic economic treatment in _The Machinery of Freedom_, by Friedman, and Vernor Vinge (science fiction author) seemed taken with the notion, too. He experimented with it in the _Across Realtime_ stories. Edit: Also Neal Stephenson, sort-of in _Snowcrash_, explicitly in _Diamond Age_.
I strongly dislike the notion because I believe access to justice is a bedrock function of society. But folks who think like me should also think long and hard about how much access "we" (in the US, not speaking for anyone else) have to justice without a big bank account now, and to what extent this would really change much.
Re: Privately Enforced and Punished Crime
#20> I propose to instead privatize the detection, prosecution, and punishment of crime. Yes, because privatization of the prison system worked out so well, didn't it? So let's go the whole hog and privatize the entire justice system.
These two things are very different and if you don't have any smart arguments then why post at all?
'are very different'
How so? You are also making an argument, but I don't follow the reasoning.