From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 05:51:09 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Minority vs. majority
Message-ID: <199606091739.KAA04029@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:40 PM 6/8/96 EDT, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
>ichudov@algebra.com (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
jimbell@pacifier.com