Comment by seibelj
3 hours ago
In a just society the penalties for that behavior would be commiserate with the societal costs. Even if the single act is relatively low cost, the societal-wide implication means no one can reasonably do this at a small scale without losing their investment. Therefore the penalties should be harsh, widely publicized, and extreme
Ya know, you'd think if these guys are willing to do these crimes for a couple hundred bucks they might also be willing to turn their "friends" in for a couple hundred bucks.
Like the guys who pick up cans and bottles for recycling, people who need the money can do a lot of useful work with the right incentives.
If you set up a system like "turn in video of someone stripping copper that leads to an arrest and we reward you with $1,000" or something you could probably enlist the help of a lot of these people.
Such a society would pay a whole lot more attention to white-collar financial and environmental crimes than to anything all the motivated junkies in the country could wreak.
This I believe is part of why forgery is dealt with so harshly, copying a few thousand bucks isn’t a big deal but destroying the integrity of hard currency is.
I always thought the same logic should be applied to corruption by any kind of official. No matter if politician, judge or police officer - their crimes should be punished 10- or even 100-fold because the real damaged is undermining the entire system.