[ellyagg]

Differences in degree produce differences in kind all the time. Some places you're allowed to have small amounts of recreational drugs, but if you have large amounts you're presumed drug dealing. Over the years we've allowed tips uncovered on undercover operations to nab unrelated criminal activity; now that the government is shown to be monitoring online behavior on most of us, we recognize it as a problem. Some places you're allowed to cut down a Christmas tree but if you clear cut the forest, people would look askance. The examples of quantity mattering are endless. Often the issue has to do with power. Once the quantity and efficiency of an activity affords vast new power, that power must be scrutinized and regulated.