• nucleative@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    This is intuitive and you can see it everywhere. Rules and laws only have power when they are actively enforced. If there’s nobody there to stop a bad actor, eventually they will figure it out and abuse the flaw.

    Getting people to drive at (or close to) the speed limit only takes seeing a couple of cops a day and perhaps having received a ticket or two.

    Preventing tax cheats just requires enough enforcement so that you know of a guy who knows a guy who was turned inside out by an audit.

    Keeping corruption in government low just requires a few public cases of the right people getting thrown in jail never to come back again. Sadly this is one that’s eroded significantly in recent memory and too many rotten actors are publicly getting away with shady business.

    • Angry_Autist@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Not completely spite, there’s a good chunk of fear there too

      Rich people whisper in their private circles about all the times in the past the oppressed fight back, and spend a good chunk of their unethical wealth to prevent the common people from organizing

      It’s worked so well that they’ve turned us against each other over the basic right to have a livable wage.

  • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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    21 days ago

    The willingness of those in power to act fairly depends on how easily others can collectively push back against unfair treatment

    And as long as Americans don’t collectively push back, Trump will continue to abuse anyone and everyone in his conquest of the country.