Oddbean new post about | logout
 my point is the entire system must be in balance.

you can't just say " i don't like this part of the system so i will eliminate it " 

you must understand how the entire system functions and think if you can maybe come up with a better system and even we know historically it never works

communism didn't work and prohibition didn't work because people aren't smart enough to design systems - best we can do is not break the ones that are already working even if they aren't perfect

most of the time the source of imperfection in a system is the users themselves and trying to ban things is the most idiotic of all knee jerk reactions one can have to not being able to understand how the problems are inherent in human nature and have nothing to do with the system itself 

banning things historically almost always makes everything worse whether we are talking about alcohol prohibition of price controls or the war on drugs or anything else