[borism]

think of the bounties on someone like Kim Jong-Il

Now think of the bounties on average folks like you and me in comparison.

That's right, our lives will instantly be worth pennies and there'll instantly many folks around with incentive to murder.

[Unseelie]

Pennies is a bit extreme. The risk in the enterprise is pretty high, expert assassins rare, and amatures likely to get caught.

While an expert assassin may take a job on a random Joe for on the order of a hundred dollars, an amateur with any sense will not, and therefor the price will be rather high.

And, even if assassinations of pedestrians becomes realistically common..On the order of car crash mortalities, its at least a cause of death that may make people consider how they act toward one another.

[5l]

Right, because only bad people get assassinated.