Also, as far as the power to deter is concerned, there is no such thing as "too large" a threat; if it is large enough to succeed, it is not carried out anyway. A threat is only "too large" if its very size interferes with its credibility. Atomic destruction for small misdemeanors, like expensive incarceration for overtime parking, would be superfluous but not exorbitant unless the threatened person considered it too awful to be real and ignored it.

XREF: Relates to deterrence theory in game theory and Cold War mutual assured destruction doctrine; the credibility paradox resembles Schelling's work on threats.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 711