Punishment as moral desert, and punishment as incentive lead to different results in some cases.
Punishment is complicated. As far as I can tell, punishment only works if the person being punished sees themselves as being in the same social system as the punisher. If the person being punished doesn't see it that way, then the "punishment" just looks like an attack.
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.