The spirit of the law is very different from the letter of the law.

The spirit is about an infinite, a prosocial stance, trust, a positive sum, an ends.

A focus on the letter of the law is about means, "if it's legal it's allowed"^[ff]

For example, consider someone being frustrated that a billionaire pays few taxes due to a loophole, and the billionaire being upset that anyone is mad they are following their incentives within the rules that were given.

From the perspective of the tax payer: "whatever is legal is allowed."

From the collective perspective "whatever is not aligned with the intention is immoral."

These two perspectives are distinct!

It's impossible for them to be fully aligned, for the same reason it's impossible for the incentives of the collective and the individual to ever be perfectly aligned.