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Re: Minority vs. majority
At 10:40 PM 6/8/96 EDT, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
>[email protected] (Igor Chudov @ home) writes:
>> You haven't seen _real_ corrupt officials. :)
>
>Jim - could corrupt gov't official hide behind anonymity too?
>E.g., a particularly obnoxious gov't regulation being issued from
>behind anon remailer?
Regulation issued? Sure. Regulation _enforced_? Far more difficult!
Maybe even impossible, when considered over the entire population. I've
been considering this for a long time, and I came to the conclusion that you
really can't enforce regulations dictated by a small fraction of the
population onto the large majority.
Enforcing a regulation costs effort. (money? time? people?) People are
not going to put in this kind of effort unless they feel strongly about an
issue. It would be possible for a large majority to enforce a standard of
behavior on a tiny minority ("rules" against theft and other common crime)
but this will work only if the average individual is willing to donate money
to see those general rules enforced. Over time, few people will donate
money to see victimless crimes (drugs, gambling, prostituion) enforced, for instance.
Jim Bell
[email protected]