Mike Lorrey wrote:
<Since stealing and fraudulently misrepresenting are not crimes of
physical violence, they are financial and should not be considered, IMV,
to be crimes against the state.>
Mike, sorry I don't have time today to reply in detail to your posts on
capitalism. I hope to have more time next week. One brief comment: the view
you express above is different from the view of other libertarians I've
talked to, who say that stealing and fraud should be considered crimes
rather than torts.
I do think your idea of restitution is a good one and would like to see it
in wider use. The problems I've seen in real life when a court orders some
form of restitution, such as having the convicted criminal mow the victim's
yard or pay a portion of each paycheck to the victim, are that the criminal
often does a shabby job of mowing the yard (or doesn't show up at all) and
avoids the paycheck-withholding scheme by arranging to work off-the-books
for cash (same tactics used by certain parents to avoid paying child
support). My observation has been that people usually commit crimes because
they're not very successful at regular work.
Barbara
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