There are two PDA's to choose from in my area:
1. Nice Security Inc. If someone steals my lunchbag, they promise to try to extract $5 in compensation from the criminal.
2. Brutal Security Inc. If someone steals my lunchbag, they will extract $1000 from the criminal or hack their hand off.
Brutal Security Inc. doesn't seem much more expensive and I think it would help keep people from bothering me. So I'm heading in that direction. What do you think?
Edit: I apologize; I'm not used to thinking about these kinds of problems, but I immediately thought of the following. Maybe if my family member was punished by Brutal Security Inc. then I would be less inclined to use it. Also, others might shun me for choosing Brutal Security Inc. Its facilities or employees might be more likely to be victimized by terrorist attacks, and would have higher insurance costs. If they wrongly punish someone, perhaps they would be held liable for compensation.
Are there any other market factors operating against them that I missed?
baxter:Brutal Security Inc. doesn't seem much more expensive
It would be much more expensive. The costs would be enormous for them.
The fallacies of intellectual communism, a compilation - On the nature of power
baxter: There are two PDA's to choose from in my area: 1. Nice Security Inc. If someone steals my lunchbag, they promise to try to extract $5 in compensation from the criminal. 2. Brutal Security Inc. If someone steals my lunchbag, they will extract $1000 from the criminal or hack their hand off. Brutal Security Inc. doesn't seem much more expensive and I think it would help keep people from bothering me. So I'm heading in that direction. What do you think?
I think they beat the other option:
State Security Inc. If someone steals my lunch bag, so what? State Security Inc. already took half of my income via taxes. EDIT: And I still ended up buying Brinks Home Security service, a dog, and a shotty. EDIT 2: And Hitler still invaded Poland. EDIT 3: I'm gonna put this as my signature.
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
What if the other guy has his own PDA and your lunchbag is contested?
Think of it the way you do insurance. In a case of no fault, both parties may have to pay for damages. In that case do you want to pay the penalty for dealing with Brutal Security, Inc.?
The policy of enforcing a $1000 penalty or the loss of a limb is not proportional to the damages - assuming the lunch box didn't contain something more valuable than just your lunch and wasn't some diamond-studded box. Brutal Security, Inc. would then most likely have high costs associated with it's business - which includes negotiating with other PDAs.
The other consideration is whether or not you'd even want to have your lunch bag covered.