In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

Usually those are disguised as arguments that there are not actually any self-made men, but people who rode on their society.

There are some standards that are widely applied across the states (like the MPC, some model jury instructions), and obviously the legal issues are very similar, but there are definitely major important differences between the states; for instance, groping a 17 year old in Alabama might be an aggravated sexual battery crime, but doing the same thing in Oregon might be a basic sexual assault.

Simply put, In the case of a car accident, The family of the victim can demand a fee, which would void any prosecution against the perp.

It's not ideal, but seems better than the chinese system. At least the victim's family gets something out of it.

Foreclosures are different, and for a good reason. One of the statements you make (similarly to DMCA takedowns) is something along the lines of "I have done my due diligence, and I assert under risk of perjury that the info contained below is correct."

If your bad foreclosure (or DMCA takedown) is taken to court, you should be able to prove that a mistake happened in spite of your due diligence.

Unlike amended taxes, or patent infringement, the results of an unjustified foreclosure might be fatal and essentially irrecoverable for the foreclosed party.

> Also, it's rare to prosecute for perjury when the defendant volunteers the new version, as that would discourage past liars from ever coming forward with the truth.

No truth was volunteered willingly here. They are challenged in court every day, and often shown to be fraudulent! After a lot of these, they went back to revise.

It is rare to prosecute when someone corrects themselves with a good excuse.

It is not rare to prosecute when someone admits perjury with no good explanation (and really, you should look into it, e.g. on Deninger's market ticker - the only explanation here is greed, which is not good enough). Unless you are a big bank.

> In other news, I amended my tax return a few years ago. I do not generally refer to that event as the time I committed perjury.

Perjury requires, as you stated, making a knowingly wrong statement. (Will does not enter the equation, only knowledge). If you knowingly filed a fraudulent tax return - then, yes, you have possibly committed perjury - but unless you are already on the IRS' sight, not much is likely to happen.

The mayors of the Russian city xxxsk in the Far East and its Chinese sister city xxxhui in the Heilongjiang province, get together once a year to discuss worldly affairs.

The mayor of xxxsk comes to visit the mayor of xxxhui, and find that the mayor of xxxhui is living in a luxury apartment, with a fine BMW in the garage, and even an "er nai" in an adjecent apartment. The mayor of xxxsk is impressed, and asks: "how are you, as a public servant, able to afford all this?" The xxxhui mayor gestures towards the floor to ceiling window of his pad, and responds proudly - "you see that factory complex - 800 million yuan (that was about 100 MM USD at the time I heard this joke) project, and I skimmed 10% of it".

The next sunmmer, the mayor of xxxhui visits xxxsk at the Russian mayor's dacha. The dacha was filled with resplendent decorations that would not be out of place in Odintsovo. There was a black Mercedes Benz in the garage, and several devki frolicking in the swimming pool. The Chinese mayor was duly impressed, and asked his Russian counterpart - "how are you able to afford all this?" The Russian mayor proudly gestures towards the woods - "you see that over there?" "No, I see only trees!", replies the Chinese mayor. "Well, that was supposed to be the eastern end of the new Trans-Siberian Highway - 3 billion rubles project, and I spizdel vse - took all of it."