"The Purge"

My first instinctive reaction, after watching the trailer for the movie "The Purge", was, "you have got to be kidding me."

Then, I thought a bit about it, and read the synopsis on imdb:

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment.

After that, my reaction was: "You fracking HAVE got to be kidding me!"

The premise is just that stupid.

In the trailer, one woman says "think about all the good the purge has brought". I wonder what that might be.

A 12 hour period without any emergency systems? What would be the toll on the economy of a state, if they were actually crazy enough to implement that?

Let's start off with the most obvious, and probably the one with the smallest impact: EVERYBODY would buy an expensive alarm system for their house. That's millions of dollars gone, for no good reason. And that's just the start.

We're talking probably millions of deaths, in a state like the U.S. We're talking something like a few percent of the populace. And that's only the fatalities. There would be countless injuries that would have to be treated after the 12 hour hospital shutdown - which, by the way, does or doesn't affect people already IN the hospital before the "purge"? Those injuries would bring down a part of the economy for months after the event.

Not only that, though. Nobody would be prepared to leave their homes during the "purge". That means no public services, no gas stations, no pubs, no nuclear reactors, no nothing.

It would be nice to be able to come up with some real numbers here - sadly, I'm not able to do that, but maybe someone will, at some point.

And what about revenge? Sure, some of the criminals will wear masks - but masks can come off when you least expect them to, and some will be too stupid, too drunk, too messy to buy masks.

How about car accidents that would go unpunished, their victims untreated? How about all the air traffic that a huge economy these days relies upon? How about the freaking military, for crying out loud.

Yeah. Forget it. I'm not going on about this. It's maddening. It's hilarious.

In short, it's just that stupid.

A lot more reasons why it's stupid can be found on TvTropes.