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Junio's avatar

Interesting

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Laura London's avatar

I think this idea is a good thought experiment for ways to culturally regulate bad behavior, but I don't think it would play out the way that you imagine it would. In a world where blackmail is legal, people will hopefully still feel strong social ties to each other, and *not* want to manipulate people into paying them money for keeping a secret... leaving that the people who do feel comfortable taking advantage of this system likely to be people who feel a low degree of social connection to other people, and likely more malevolent as well. legalizing blackmail would also likely erode social trust. There's nothing really out there keeping the poor man you gave as an example protected under this system- there could be a bad actor who just enjoys seeing people in distress, or just dislikes this poor man, and is also poor enough for the pennies that he has to be worth something to him. And there would be no recourse for the poor man.

I also do like the framework of "information as a public good," but I don't think that paying people to keep our secrets helps our society access more information.

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