An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight • Hacker News Board

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#161

Post by phainopepla2 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #155

ProAm wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's meth.

We live in a very rural, incredibly safe area. You can always tell when someone else gets hooked on meth. Their place goes to shit, step 1. Their kids get dirty, step 2. You start to see things like car batteries or tools disappear from nearby farms, step 3. They die or go to jail after trying to steal something big, like electric lines or even train rails in one instance, step 4. At least with heroine, they tend to…

My apartment was broken into once and I knew it was a meth head because they color coordinated my closet before they left. Turned out to be someone I knew (on meth)

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#162

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #157

lmm wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. Because the only solutions that work are social. > There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe. Kipling has a poem about that one, it doesn't work out.

>Because the only solutions that work are social. This kind of talk from leftist politicians translates to me as : "We will use the criminally insane, and drug addicted against you in a campaign of terror until you vote in Communists. We will do everything in our power to prevent you from imprisoning these people or the people who poison them with drugs to maintain our leverage over you and increase our political pow…

Incidentally, that's basically the plot of Zootopia

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#163

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

swiftcoder wrote: post #100

tshaddox wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t the most obvious response from economics that the crime needs to be made more expensive? In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher. If a quarter of the people who tried a comparable theft got thrown in jail for 2 years and another quarter got shot by a security guard, I suspect attempts would be rare. The financial damage done by the thief is presumably ir…

> In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher Humans are notoriously bad at evaluating probabilities. They'll buy lottery tickets at 1:300,000,000 odds, and are upset when an 85% shot in XCOM misses... The likelihood of being harmed would need to be basically 100% before folks would stop taking the risk.

> The likelihood of being harmed would need to be basically 100% before folks would stop taking the risk.

Your terms are acceptable.

In all seriousness, there are cultures in the middle east that do (or did) this sort of thing. Losing a hand for stealing, etc.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#164

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

jeffrallen wrote: post #87

hiddencost wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another theory which says that if people have health care, food, shelter, education, and liberty, they won't commit crimes like this. Just a thought.

It's not a theory. It's socialism and it works fine in Scandinavia, Switzerland, and a bunch of other places.

The replies to you illustrate this is provably false. Socialism has yet to work anywhere it's tried.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#165

Post by phainopepla2 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #159

driverdan wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an economics perspective the solution is to legalize everything. Black markets cause incentives like this.

Yep. Meth costs pennies to make. Sell it cheap in liquor stores and nobody would do this any more.

Meth is already incredibly cheap. Meth addicts would definitely still engage in this behavior even if meth were free, because they still need money for rent, gas, food, whatever.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#166

Post by devmor » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:00 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #157

lmm wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. Because the only solutions that work are social. > There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe. Kipling has a poem about that one, it doesn't work out.

>Because the only solutions that work are social. This kind of talk from leftist politicians translates to me as : "We will use the criminally insane, and drug addicted against you in a campaign of terror until you vote in Communists. We will do everything in our power to prevent you from imprisoning these people or the people who poison them with drugs to maintain our leverage over you and increase our political pow…

Yes it’s very easy to have 90% approval and hear no downsides to your regime when you execute and imprison people for disapproval.

Oh you have some complaints? You must be a drug dealer. Death for you.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#167

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:00 AM UTC

jcgrillo wrote: post #73

johanvts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Or pay a guard a fair wage and comp them the $0.20 or whatever for each bullet.. EDIT: to be clear I'm not saying it should be that way, but there was a time not long ago when this was the normal way to handle the situation. I'd argue the present arrangement is more civilized.

$0.20 isn't enough to cover good self-defense 9mm rounds, and no you shouldn't just use FMJ.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#168

Post by kelnos » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:00 AM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #74

johanvts wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why hasn’t the economist of the world figured out a solution to this problem. There has to be a better way when both sides would be better off by just paying the theif double. Some kind of proof of work system to show that you really are crazy enough to do the crime maybe.

Isn’t the most obvious response from economics that the crime needs to be made more expensive? In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher. If a quarter of the people who tried a comparable theft got thrown in jail for 2 years and another quarter got shot by a security guard, I suspect attempts would be rare. The financial damage done by the thief is presumably ir…

Economics is a bad place to look for a fix for social problems.

Look at incentives, instead: housed, well-fed people with financial security and a feeling of purpose in life tend to commit fewer crimes, so let's fix wealth/income inequality, as well as our pathetic social safety net.

Not saying that will fix everything. People still commit crimes, both rich and poor alike, because they want a shortcut to having more than they have. But eliminating desperation would certainly help.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#169

Post by kelnos » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:02 AM UTC

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #163

swiftcoder wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In other words, the likelihood of being harmed while attempting the crime needs to be much higher Humans are notoriously bad at evaluating probabilities. They'll buy lottery tickets at 1:300,000,000 odds, and are upset when an 85% shot in XCOM misses... The likelihood of being harmed would need to be basically 100% before folks would stop taking the risk.

> The likelihood of being harmed would need to be basically 100% before folks would stop taking the risk. Your terms are acceptable. In all seriousness, there are cultures in the middle east that do (or did) this sort of thing. Losing a hand for stealing, etc.

That's not a 100% probability of being harmed, though. That's only if you get caught. Most criminals believe they won't get caught.

Re: An Ohio Valley 100k-watt FM signal is severed in broad daylight

#170

Post by devmor » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:02 AM UTC

alexgieg wrote: post #109

hiddencost wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another theory which says that if people have health care, food, shelter, education, and liberty, they won't commit crimes like this. Just a thought.

Those are pre-requisites, but not enough. You also need society to have local cultures, as well as the culture at large, that actively oppose such behavior as immoral and/or shameful, with enforcement by peers. This I say based on two well-proven models, the sociological typology of societies as guilt, shame, or fear-based, and the psychological model of the six stages (level of complexity) of moral reasoning, that s…

Japan, the society with such a corrupt criminal justice system that being arrested for anything regardless of guilt is generally considered the end of your prospects in life?