ext_94636 ([identity profile] hunkymouse.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] rozk 2006-10-03 04:29 pm (UTC)

You remind me of "Freakonomics" - the revelation that crime in NY didn't drop because of Zero Tolerance, but because of the right to abortion, which wiped out a whole generation of probably criminals.

It is, I think, the best possible illustration of a hard fact: passing laws is only sometimes a solution to a problem.

In my view, laws are at best a framework in which problem-solvers are able to work. You have to enable people who solve problems by removing laws which would otherwise hamstring them; but creating new laws to empower them seems almost always a disaster.

There are no rules. You can't say: "If we do this, we will solve that problem." Each case has to be judged on its own merits by concerned and honest people who actually understand the problem.

The effect, otherwise, is to create yet another Machine of bureaucracy, which takes over and mangles us. Did you read the story of the guy who dropped his iPod in the loo on the plane?

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