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Comment by edanm | Hacker News Reader

> If this starts to break down then the law is failing. The fix isn’t to convince people that following the law is inportant, the fix is to show people that the law offers a viable notion of justice, whatever that might entail.

I agree. I just don't think the system is as broken as you seem to think it is. Compared to almost any other place and time, the system is the best.

> Those answers are all wrong. The purpose of the law is this: to convince people not to take matters into their own hands.

Btw, while I do agree with this in a democracy, note that many, many people throughout history (and today!) live and have lived in places where some people really are above the law. That doesn't seem to preclude society functioning.

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If the system is the best then it should work. If it worked then there wouldn’t be a bunch of people cheering on a cold-blooded murder.

Have you lost a loved one because health insurance refused or delayed payment for treatment? I can't take you seriously when you say the system isn't that broken when I see people sharing their experiences of how people died and suffered unnecessarily because some health insurance company fought them on it. How is that not insanely broken?

Here in Germany, I've never had to worry about whether my healthcare would pay my treatment when I've had to go to the hospital and had to be operated on. The idea that this is possible in other countries is unfathomable to me. I didn't choose to have whatever illness I might have. My doctor decided the best way to treat my illness. Why does some third party get to decide "but nah bro, it can't be that bad, let's just wait and see how the patient does in a week or two". Why can they override what a doctor thinks is best?

And why are there people like you who thinks "it's not that bad/broken".

Let me clarify. First, I'm not from the US. I completely agree with you that their healthcare system seems incredibly broken.

That, however, is not what I was referring to - I was talking about the system of laws, of democracy, etc. That was what the discussion was about - whether it's "ok" to kill someone in a vigilante way, and whether the legal system or general system of Western countries works well in terms of aligning the law to what people think it should be.

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