Perhaps a nitpick detail, but having someone rob them would not be equivalent, because the cost of the action is offset by the ill-gotten gains. The proposed currency is more directly equivalent to paying someone to break into the target’s bank account and destroying their assets by a proportional amount so that no one can use them anymore.
As for the more general concerns:
Standardized laws and rules tend in practice to disproportionately benefit those with the resources to bend and manipulate those rules with lawyers. Furthermore, this proposal does not need to replace all laws, but can be utilized alongside them as a way for people to show their disapproval in a way that is more effective that verbal insult, and less coercive than physical violence. I’d consider it a potential way to channel people’s anger so that they don’t decide to start a revolution against what they see as laws that benefit the rich and powerful. It is a way to distribute a little power to individuals and allow them to participate in a system that considers their input in a small but meaningful way.
The rules may be more consistent with laws, but in practice, they are also contentious in the sense that the process of creating these laws is arcane and complex and the resulting punishments often delayed for years as they work through the legal system. Again, this makes sense when determining how the coercive power of the state should be applied, but leaves something to be desired in terms of responsiveness to addressing real world concerns.
Third-party enforcement is certainly desirable. In practice, the glory system allows anyone outside the two parties to contribute and likely the bulk of votes will come from them. As for cycles of violence, the exchange rate mechanism means that defence is at least twice as effective as attack with the same amount of currency, which should at least mitigate the cycles because it won’t be cost-effective to attack without significant public support. Though this is only relevant to the forum condition.
In the general condition as a currency, keep in mind that as a currency functions as a store of value, there is a substantial opportunity cost to spending the currency to destroy other people’s currency rather than say, using it to accrue interest. The cycles are in a sense self-limiting because people won’t want to spend all their money escalating a conflict that will only cause both sides to hemorrhage funds, unless someone feels so utterly wronged as to be willing to go bankrupt to bankrupt another, in which case, one should honestly be asking what kind of injustice caused this situation to come into being in the first place.
Perhaps a nitpick detail, but having someone rob them would not be equivalent, because the cost of the action is offset by the ill-gotten gains. The proposed currency is more directly equivalent to paying someone to break into the target’s bank account and destroying their assets by a proportional amount so that no one can use them anymore.
As for the more general concerns:
Standardized laws and rules tend in practice to disproportionately benefit those with the resources to bend and manipulate those rules with lawyers. Furthermore, this proposal does not need to replace all laws, but can be utilized alongside them as a way for people to show their disapproval in a way that is more effective that verbal insult, and less coercive than physical violence. I’d consider it a potential way to channel people’s anger so that they don’t decide to start a revolution against what they see as laws that benefit the rich and powerful. It is a way to distribute a little power to individuals and allow them to participate in a system that considers their input in a small but meaningful way.
The rules may be more consistent with laws, but in practice, they are also contentious in the sense that the process of creating these laws is arcane and complex and the resulting punishments often delayed for years as they work through the legal system. Again, this makes sense when determining how the coercive power of the state should be applied, but leaves something to be desired in terms of responsiveness to addressing real world concerns.
Third-party enforcement is certainly desirable. In practice, the glory system allows anyone outside the two parties to contribute and likely the bulk of votes will come from them. As for cycles of violence, the exchange rate mechanism means that defence is at least twice as effective as attack with the same amount of currency, which should at least mitigate the cycles because it won’t be cost-effective to attack without significant public support. Though this is only relevant to the forum condition.
In the general condition as a currency, keep in mind that as a currency functions as a store of value, there is a substantial opportunity cost to spending the currency to destroy other people’s currency rather than say, using it to accrue interest. The cycles are in a sense self-limiting because people won’t want to spend all their money escalating a conflict that will only cause both sides to hemorrhage funds, unless someone feels so utterly wronged as to be willing to go bankrupt to bankrupt another, in which case, one should honestly be asking what kind of injustice caused this situation to come into being in the first place.
All that being said, I appreciate the critiques.