From: | acgetchell@*******.edu (Adam Getchell) |
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Subject: | Re: Shadowrun society and culture |
Date: | Sun, 26 May 1996 16:59:27 -0700 |
>aimed at regulating the AVAILABILITY of guns. The laws can work, if
>enforced... that's why you don't see many crooks with tanks, for example.
>OTH, it's probably a _little_ late to start controlling the availability
>of guns when there's such an ample supply already.
You don't see crooks with tanks because: 1) There is a limited supply (only
a couple of dozen thousand in the world, mostly ex-Soviet) compared with
firearms 2) The economic expenditure to acquire a tank is much greater than
that to acquire a firearm 3) Tanks are not very portable or concealable
4)The benefits of acquiring and using a tank are outweighed by the various
difficulties in acquiring/using/hiding the thing.
The antidrug actions undertaken are also designed at controlling the
availability of drugs, and has failed miserably. A basic economic argument
would illuminate why:
Drugs/guns are an elastic market. As the supply of drugs/guns goes down,
the prices go up. As the prices of drugs/guns go up, the incentive to enter
the market produces many more suppliers. As the number of suppliers
increase, the availability increases. As the availability increases, the
price goes down. As the prices go down, the market expands.
No combination of legislation and enforcement in existence can beat an
elastic demand curve.
>| Robert Watkins robertdw@*******.com.au |
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Adam Getchell
acgetchell@*******.edu
http://www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~acgetche/
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"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent."
-- Sun Tzu