pktechgirlbackup (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2011-07-06 06:50 pm
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2011-07-06 06:50 pm
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Oh, right, Iowa votes early.
People sometimes advocate requiring congresscritter's to have family in the military as a method to cut down on aggressive wars, the idea being that when it's your son's neck on the line, you'll think harder before invading. This sounds like a good idea until you remember that we have a volunteer army, and the people who volunteer (and their families) are not random subsets of the population. You will actually end up with more pro-military, pro-military-action congresscritters than before.
Likewise, people advocate preventing regulators of government agencies (most recently financial, but more relevant to my current interests, also medical) from going on to hold or having held positions at companies they regulate. As Overdose points out, that's tantamount to disqualifying everyone who might know something about the topic. You're left with professional regulators or the people too incompetent to get hired elsewhere. Similarly, when you ban university researchers who take government money from doing for-profit work, the chances that you cost the for profit world a researcher are smaller than the chances you cost the public domain world a researcher. But regulators who are in bed with the regulated and researchers diverting public funds to research that benefits them financially are serious problems. Much like with the antibiotics, there doesn't appear to be a solution that doesn't involve judgement calls.
Speaking of antibiotics, why the hell are farmers allowed to give cows continuous prophylactic antibiotics? I can't think of a rational reason that I should be allowed to give my cat the good antibiotics except that I will cut you if you try to stop me, but that's occasional and there's minimal chance his stomach bacteria are going to mix with something infectious to me (although he does his best, what with the throwing up for three nights in a row and all). As opposed to the animals we are going to eat which will then sit in our stomachs and mingle with our stomach bacteria which then go fool around with the more deadly strains of E. coli so they can feel cool and rebellious.
Likewise, people advocate preventing regulators of government agencies (most recently financial, but more relevant to my current interests, also medical) from going on to hold or having held positions at companies they regulate. As Overdose points out, that's tantamount to disqualifying everyone who might know something about the topic. You're left with professional regulators or the people too incompetent to get hired elsewhere. Similarly, when you ban university researchers who take government money from doing for-profit work, the chances that you cost the for profit world a researcher are smaller than the chances you cost the public domain world a researcher. But regulators who are in bed with the regulated and researchers diverting public funds to research that benefits them financially are serious problems. Much like with the antibiotics, there doesn't appear to be a solution that doesn't involve judgement calls.
Speaking of antibiotics, why the hell are farmers allowed to give cows continuous prophylactic antibiotics? I can't think of a rational reason that I should be allowed to give my cat the good antibiotics except that I will cut you if you try to stop me, but that's occasional and there's minimal chance his stomach bacteria are going to mix with something infectious to me (although he does his best, what with the throwing up for three nights in a row and all). As opposed to the animals we are going to eat which will then sit in our stomachs and mingle with our stomach bacteria which then go fool around with the more deadly strains of E. coli so they can feel cool and rebellious.