[itsoktocry]

>Fraud of a sufficient degree causes harm at a scale that is equivalent (in economic terms at least) to the consequences of murder.

This is ridiculous, practically and morally.

Someone losing their life is far worse than a billion people being defrauded of $10 each, regardless of how the economists decide to value a human.

[tyree731]

Disagree. First, it wouldn’t be $10 split evenly amongst a billion people, some people would end up losing significantly more than others. Second, we can’t speak to the real world consequences of massive fraud in this particular case yet, but in the case of the Bernie Madoff fraud, multiple people are known to have killed themselves as a result of their loss, so we can only assume similar outcomes here.