Blackmail was intended to be a member of the “things where the demands scale with the value of the victim’s legible resources” category.
For a different example, let’s take “kidnapping the victim’s kid for ransom”. In the absence of a market for kidneys, the kidnapper will demand “approximately all of your money”, and will not bother with kidnapping the children of people who have no money.
In the presence of a market for kidneys, the kidnapper can now demand “approximately all of your money, plus the fire-sale price on a kidney”. People with no assets besides their kidneys are now viable targets.
I am aware that the “ideal” solution from a decision theory point of view is for everyone to adopt the policy of “never give in to threats”. However, as long as there exist people who do give in to threats, threatening those people is incentivized and creating a market for body parts increases that incentive.
Blackmail was intended to be a member of the “things where the demands scale with the value of the victim’s legible resources” category.
For a different example, let’s take “kidnapping the victim’s kid for ransom”. In the absence of a market for kidneys, the kidnapper will demand “approximately all of your money”, and will not bother with kidnapping the children of people who have no money.
In the presence of a market for kidneys, the kidnapper can now demand “approximately all of your money, plus the fire-sale price on a kidney”. People with no assets besides their kidneys are now viable targets.
I am aware that the “ideal” solution from a decision theory point of view is for everyone to adopt the policy of “never give in to threats”. However, as long as there exist people who do give in to threats, threatening those people is incentivized and creating a market for body parts increases that incentive.