Immunity and Incentives

Imagine giving someone great power whose misuse can cause harm to people’s lives, liberties, and property, but shielding the power wielders from all personal responsibility to compensate those they harm. Just how much care and responsibility would you expect someone in this protected status to exercise? Of course, this is precisely the situation of government officials and functionaries, who may wreak the gravest harms yet never pay a penny from their own pockets to the people their actions have harmed.