11-07-2018, 02:08 AM
the following are two off-topic but related in-style items.
A while back America (and perhaps in Africa) burned millions of $ of siezed illegal ivory (poor dead elephants) to "make a point" while I suggested (and got a poo-poo reply) that the ivory should have been sold to China. Perhaps the oversupply might have depressed the price and made poaching less desirable a profession. But burn it they did.
Decades ago I voiced that instead of burning siezed cocaine, the US government should have taken the product and undertook the role of big-time-dealer, sold the product, used the $ to pay off the national debt, then, as the main middleman, could have closed down the distribution network by just removing themselves. Low end buyers had no source, growers had no outlet.
There are flaws in this, and moral questions, but after the excessive $$ spent on trying to stop it, we have dismal results. BTW, every citizen owes $27,000 of the national debt. Nice thing to leave your children, huh?
A while back America (and perhaps in Africa) burned millions of $ of siezed illegal ivory (poor dead elephants) to "make a point" while I suggested (and got a poo-poo reply) that the ivory should have been sold to China. Perhaps the oversupply might have depressed the price and made poaching less desirable a profession. But burn it they did.
Decades ago I voiced that instead of burning siezed cocaine, the US government should have taken the product and undertook the role of big-time-dealer, sold the product, used the $ to pay off the national debt, then, as the main middleman, could have closed down the distribution network by just removing themselves. Low end buyers had no source, growers had no outlet.
There are flaws in this, and moral questions, but after the excessive $$ spent on trying to stop it, we have dismal results. BTW, every citizen owes $27,000 of the national debt. Nice thing to leave your children, huh?