[dvdkon]

Our laws only work because of a hidden assumption that trivial or victimless crimes won't be prosecuted. This assumption isn't always upheld, but automatic surveilance would break it pretty much every time.

Even if our laws were actually written with perfect enforcement in mind, only outlawing what's actually antisocial, I don't think I could ever trust a government enough to give it that kind of power. Mass surveillance makes it easier to enforce any law, just or not, and most countries haven't been able to go even one lifetime without turning into a totalitarian hellhole or at least persecuting part of their population.

Another part of it may be that emigrating is so costly (not just in money) that most people won't ever be able to do it. When you're de facto forced to live in a country whose laws you (partly) disagree with, it's easier to add barriers to law enforcement than to get those laws changed.

[cucumber3732842]

>antisocial

God I hate this word.

Maybe you just picked it up from "those people" but the correlation it has with downright authoritarian and statist tendencies is too damn high for me. Like I expect it to be followed by a rant about how anyone who doesn't pull permits and call dig safe before installing a mailbox deserves to lose their house or whatever.

I mostly agree with everything else you wrote.

[dvdkon]

Sorry about your connotations. I just needed a simple term to express "actions that are against the implicit social contract and harm the rest of society".

Of course pinning down what exactly this should encompass is hard, which is where my general distrust comes in.