moral_quandaryDec 5, 2024

The assassination of United Healthcare's CEO is a real life trolley problem, and a select few are trying to argue to save all lives while the train is going to kill the masses.

https://lemmy.world/post/22795931

The assassination of United Healthcare's CEO is a real life trolley problem, and a select few are trying to argue to save all lives while the train is going to kill the masses. - Lemmy.World

It appears that in every thread about this event there is someone calling everyone else in the thread sick and twisted for not proclaiming that all lives are sacred and being for the death of one individual. It really is a real life trolley problem because those individuals are not seeing the deaths caused the insurance industry and not realizing that sitting back and doing nothing (i.e. not pulling the lever on the train track switch) doesn’t save lives…people are going to continue to die if nothing is done. Taking a moral high ground and stating that all lives matter is still going to costs lives and instead of it being a few CEOs it will be thousands.

Show threadintensely_humanDec 5, 2024
It’s not a real life trolley problem, because there is no mechanism by which killing this CEO saves lives.
Show threadAwesomeLowlanderDec 5, 2024

There is. There’s reason to think the CEO was targeted specifically because of his shitty policies. If enough CEOs were eliminated for the same reason, the rest might start remembering they have a duty to society.

(This is not a call for violence, and I am not advocating for it, this is answering a direct question about how and why the mechanic might exist)

Show threadintensely_human

It’s just not a good solution to the agency problem. Coercing someone with a gun to get you $300 from the ATM requires constant presence and the gun sticking into their back continuously. Trying to use the threat of possible assassination to get someone to act in a CEO role in a way beneficial to their millions of customers, that’s just not stable.

Using threat of punishment to motivate behavior is extremely unstable even in the tightest, simplest circumstances. Like you gotta be on the ball to get that person to punch in their ATM code and hand you the bills. Even that straightforward action is barely stable in terms of the incentive structure.

You simply can’t coerce a class of people with targeted assassinations. It’s too loose, too abstract, to unstable as a mechanism of control.

Dec 5, 2024 at 6:37pmWeb
Show threadOlgratin_MagmatoeDec 5, 2024

Trying to use the threat of possible assassination to get someone to act in a CEO role in a way beneficial to their millions of customers, that’s just not stable.

Nothing about our current situation is stable. So yeah, of course the violent symptoms of the starving and ill masses won’t be stable either.

Show threadThatGiantCameronDec 5, 2024
All of how our society operates is under threat of punishment when you have no access to food housing or healthcare by not making an income. If you we have threat of punishment for the working class we can also have threat of punishment for the owners. It’s the only way to fairly enforce the social contract under our current economic system. Obviously it’s bad to operate this way and what we are seeing is a direct result of a class of people not being held accountable for their end of the social contract.
Show threadWagnasTDec 5, 2024
You’re right, the thing that would work is if governments held them accountable, but governments have sided with the CEOs instead. These CEOs should beg the government to hold them accountable so that they don’t have to fear the masses.
Show threadAwesomeLowlanderDec 5, 2024

Using threat of punishment to motivate behavior is extremely unstable even in the tightest, simplest circumstances

Isn’t that our entire justice system?

You simply can’t coerce a class of people with targeted assassinations. It’s too loose, too abstract, to unstable as a mechanism of control.

On what basis? Nobody’s ever tried it, so it’s not like you have data to point to that says otherwise.