[kahnjw]

They are not fundamentally contradictory, everyone would know they are victims, still if it is in their net benefit to participate, they will. Again, this is an experiment with unrealistic assumptions (getting caught is an endogenous variable), it is intended to bring to bear the the absurdity of the statement that one can control their own fate if they commit fraud.

[zaphos]

This experiment just sounds like "what if fraud were not fraud"

[kahnjw]

From op:

>...avoiding the ire of the SEC is relatively easy if you set your mind to committing fraud without getting caught.

The experiment is a simple application of the economic theoretic framework to the statement above. Nothing more. There isn't all that much to argue about here, as long as you accept the framework upon which almost all of theoretical economics is based.