Paul GrahamVerified account

What about the “dirty hands paradox”? - promoting near term repression of innocent ppl because of some longer term justification

Do you have an example? In most cases, it's completely impossible

speed limits

There are two more indicators you need to include, the tolerance level for such innocents swept up, and second the grey area of semi-innocent people. These are variable tolerances, with no specific quantitative values. E.g., answer in the US is quite different than say in China.

Let me tell you a bit about taxes...

The true test is economics. What is the cost of letting guilty one keep operating? You might have to sacrifice 1M innocent people to take down Hitler but it might save 6M other folks.

On theory yes all policy is logical one and with best interest of people. In praxis every policy is repressive if apply mentioned test.

The trick are policies which increase the number of guilty people.

And the cost for each. If the cost is mildly burdensome for each innocent, but incredibly impactful for each guilty party, that should be weighed too.