A 10- or 100-millionaire stealing IP to get an n^th bomb-ass house/yacht/whatever might be heavily deterred by prior examples of imprisonment. Or, at least, certainly more deterred than a hungry thief.
If he goes to jail, people might be deterred from this particular type of anti-social behavior.
Why? They can be convinced that fame/n^th houses/yachts is not life.
But! If a food thief goes to jail, no one is deterred.
Why? Food is actually literally fucking life. You cannot deter someone from anti-social behavior that results in a cessation to hunger.
So, respectfully, I think you have things exactly the wrong way around here. Jail is a GREAT deterrent for white-collar crime, but a TERRIBLE deterrent for a many other crimes. We need fewer poor people in jail for sure, but we also probably need more rich people in jail.
A 10- or 100-millionaire stealing IP to get an n^th bomb-ass house/yacht/whatever might be heavily deterred by prior examples of imprisonment. Or, at least, certainly more deterred than a hungry thief.
If he goes to jail, people might be deterred from this particular type of anti-social behavior.
Why? They can be convinced that fame/n^th houses/yachts is not life.
But! If a food thief goes to jail, no one is deterred.
Why? Food is actually literally fucking life. You cannot deter someone from anti-social behavior that results in a cessation to hunger.
So, respectfully, I think you have things exactly the wrong way around here. Jail is a GREAT deterrent for white-collar crime, but a TERRIBLE deterrent for a many other crimes. We need fewer poor people in jail for sure, but we also probably need more rich people in jail.