This is massively overgeneralized. There are risks and costs to ignoring/removing fences, which in many cases far outweigh the costs of respecting them.
And, of course, sometimes we’re wrong in that, and it would be beneficial to ignore/remove the fence. This is a case of equilibrium of opposing forces, not of absolutes.
Sorry, I am confused. I agree that there are costs to removing fences, and I do not think that doing so is a good general policy. I do not see how this is weighted against a cost of respecting fences however (this is outside the scope of the post, but not respecting them is both hard, since the other person can usually just walk away and also something I can only see being justified under extreme circumstances).
To my eyes, the post only points out that there is a factor which usually isn’t considered when erecting a fence, and that it should be weighed accurately. The scales weigh heavy in the example case, but this is because its purpose is to illustrate a situation where that hidden factor matters significantly. Maybe the fervour on that front bled into the general argument somewhat, but while I think that it is difficult to justify this specific public fence, this is not remotely true of all fences anywhere. If it were that simple, if I believed this to be absolute, I would not call to weigh the costs, I would call to stop.
This is massively overgeneralized. There are risks and costs to ignoring/removing fences, which in many cases far outweigh the costs of respecting them.
And, of course, sometimes we’re wrong in that, and it would be beneficial to ignore/remove the fence. This is a case of equilibrium of opposing forces, not of absolutes.
Sorry, I am confused. I agree that there are costs to removing fences, and I do not think that doing so is a good general policy. I do not see how this is weighted against a cost of respecting fences however (this is outside the scope of the post, but not respecting them is both hard, since the other person can usually just walk away and also something I can only see being justified under extreme circumstances). To my eyes, the post only points out that there is a factor which usually isn’t considered when erecting a fence, and that it should be weighed accurately. The scales weigh heavy in the example case, but this is because its purpose is to illustrate a situation where that hidden factor matters significantly. Maybe the fervour on that front bled into the general argument somewhat, but while I think that it is difficult to justify this specific public fence, this is not remotely true of all fences anywhere. If it were that simple, if I believed this to be absolute, I would not call to weigh the costs, I would call to stop.