Robin Hanson has apparently asked the same thing. It seems like such a bizarre question to me:
Most people do not have the constitution or agency for criminal murder
Most companies do not have secrets large enough that assassinations would reduce the size of their problems on expectation
Most people who work at large companies don’t really give a shit if that company gets fined or into legal trouble, and so they don’t have the motivation to personally risk anything organizing murders to prevent lawsuits
Most people do not have the constitution or agency for criminal murder
I think my model of people is that people are very much changed by the affordances that society gives them and the pressures they are under. In contrast with this statement, a lot of hunter-gatherer people had to be able to fight to the death, so I don’t buy that it’s entirely about the human constitution. I think if it was a known thing that you could hire an assassin on an employee and unless you messed up and left quite explicit evidence connecting you, you’d get away with it, then there’d be enough pressures to cause people in-extremis to do it a few times per year even in just high-stakes business settings. Also my impression is that business or political assassinations exist to this day in many countries; a little searching suggests Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, possibly Nigeria, and more.
I generally put a lot more importance on tracking which norms are actually being endorsed and enforced by the group / society as opposed to primarily counting on individual ethical reasoning or individual ethical consciences.
(TBC I also am not currently buying that this is an assassination in the US, but I didn’t find this reasoning compelling.)
Also my impression is that business or political assassinations exist to this day in many countries; a little searching suggests Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, possibly Nigeria, and more.
Oh definitely. In Mexico in particular business pairs up with organized crime all of the time to strong-arm competitors. But this happens when there’s an “organized crime” tycoons can cheaply (in terms of risk) pair up with. Also, OP asked about why companies don’t assassinate whistlebowers all the time specifically.
a lot of hunter-gatherer people had to be able to fight to the death, so I don’t buy that it’s entirely about the human constitution
That was not criminal murder by the standards of the time. Arguably a lot of gang murders committed in the United States are committed by people not capable or willing to go out and murder people on their own.
This sort of begs the question of why we don’t observe other companies assassinating whistleblowers.
Robin Hanson has apparently asked the same thing. It seems like such a bizarre question to me:
Most people do not have the constitution or agency for criminal murder
Most companies do not have secrets large enough that assassinations would reduce the size of their problems on expectation
Most people who work at large companies don’t really give a shit if that company gets fined or into legal trouble, and so they don’t have the motivation to personally risk anything organizing murders to prevent lawsuits
I think my model of people is that people are very much changed by the affordances that society gives them and the pressures they are under. In contrast with this statement, a lot of hunter-gatherer people had to be able to fight to the death, so I don’t buy that it’s entirely about the human constitution. I think if it was a known thing that you could hire an assassin on an employee and unless you messed up and left quite explicit evidence connecting you, you’d get away with it, then there’d be enough pressures to cause people in-extremis to do it a few times per year even in just high-stakes business settings. Also my impression is that business or political assassinations exist to this day in many countries; a little searching suggests Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, possibly Nigeria, and more.
I generally put a lot more importance on tracking which norms are actually being endorsed and enforced by the group / society as opposed to primarily counting on individual ethical reasoning or individual ethical consciences.
(TBC I also am not currently buying that this is an assassination in the US, but I didn’t find this reasoning compelling.)
Oh definitely. In Mexico in particular business pairs up with organized crime all of the time to strong-arm competitors. But this happens when there’s an “organized crime” tycoons can cheaply (in terms of risk) pair up with. Also, OP asked about why companies don’t assassinate whistlebowers all the time specifically.
That was not criminal murder by the standards of the time. Arguably a lot of gang murders committed in the United States are committed by people not capable or willing to go out and murder people on their own.