Comments for Coase Colored Glasses

Comment on Arizona’s Immigration Law: the Hidden Costs. by Bernadette

Bernadette — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:49:09 +0000

Arizona has been out of control for way to long. They allowed Sheriff Arpaio to abuse his authority by humiliating illegal immigrants. He forced them to wear pink panties. Honestly, this law is crude, racist, and it probably violates the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. This is as embarrassing as the torture inflicted at Guantanamo Bay. Here is the article: http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/.

It’s always funny when it happens to other people.

Comment on Supreme Court to rule on violent video games and minors by Denkacr

Denkacr — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:35:54 +0000

I think this question is a little difficult for me since I am going to be a father soon so i will eventually have to deal with this. I can see both sides where if parents were responsible then the supreme court would have to deal with. Some of the problem has to do with parents being uninformed. Also i think restrictions wont necessarily solve the problem since some parents may be stricter than other and may not even allow there kids to watch anything with swearing. I think its dangerous for the government to be allowed to regulate because once they do it will be difficult to take that power away. So i would say that I feel if some kid really wants to get a movie or video game unless he has the moral standing he will probably see it or watch it. Look at redbox if a minor who is 16 has a credit card or debit card he could rent a movie or video game.

Comment on Negative Externalities equal for everyone? by Denkacr

Denkacr — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:25:03 +0000

I think its important to realize that no matter what economic decision we choose there are going to be some type of negative externality, it just depends on which you feel is worse. I am sure many of those fishing boats would be complaining if the cost of gas was double or triple the price if the we didn’t do off shore drilling. I feel we can do a better job at using a combination of other alternative energies like wind and solar and bio fuels, but even those require fuel to get started. I feel there are other systems like mass transit that could be better implemented like high speed trains or monorails that could help us rely less. But none of that will really matter until we decide to focus less on driving or less dependent of a car and airplane economy. The only problem with that in areas like Logan or more rural areas its a little more difficult to implement. I feel that if people were more aware of the negative externalities that decisions have we may be able to make better decisions over all.

Comment on Human rights v. Science by Denkacr

Denkacr — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:13:50 +0000

After reading the article i can see a lot of potential hidden costs that would come from trying to get permission of people or if you let them know. I think this is the same problem that could come about when they hear that there taxes are going to crazy studies like saliva or ear wax. No matter what you are going to anger some people because they don’t see many of the private costs that go into making certain science successful. The best example that i can think of is when people complain about how expensive pharmaceutical drugs but don’t realize that there was millions of dollars that went into the r and d of making the drug successful. No matter what the government comes up as far as letting people know about DNA samples of getting there permission wont really matter because people wont wont spend the time or the effort to see the reasons behind the costs

Comment on Arizona’s Immigration Law: the Hidden Costs. by fanmingrui

fanmingrui — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:40:39 +0000

The idea of standards and rules comes into question when regarding this law as well. It seems to me that the rules created by AZ SB 1070 may not actually reflect the legal justifications for said law. Furthermore, while the statute seems to employ standard-based discretion on the part of state police officers, the discretion allowed by the law appears to almost encourage racial profiling and possible abuse of power by those with police power. While immigration is certainly a serious issue, the justification for a rule or standard and the unintended consequences of any legislation should be considered before deciding to actually enact a statute.

Comment on Negative Externalities equal for everyone? by Tgriff

Tgriff — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:40:17 +0000

What other alternatives do we have other than drilling off shore? The negative externalities impacting the “fragile ecosystems” are worth the risk. Further dependency on foreign oil would cause devastating economic externalities which, for me personally, far outweighs the current occasional oil spill. Again, as the writer explained, my opinion could be tainted because I do not care as much about the fragile ecosystems as others. Until other solutions have arisen, I believe that what we are doing is most beneficial and economical.

Comment on Arizona’s Immigration Law: the Hidden Costs. by Tgriff

Tgriff — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:30:47 +0000

It seems to me that the law is providing incentives the law enforcement officers to spend the majority of their time and resources tracking down illegal immigrants. This seems detrimental to society as a whole, because the time spent putting innocent immigrants behind bars could be spent protecting the state’s citizens from dangerous criminals. The statute within the new law allowing citizens to sue local law enforcement if they believe they are not properly enforcing the new immigration laws will be abused. Many people will take advantage of such an opportunity and try and get the most out of this newly reformed law. It seems like the state is attempting to cut back on the Amount of immigrants entering into the state, which could be a good thing, but more likely than not this law will cripple the state as a whole.

Comment on Tough Laws for Underage DUI by rpelagio06

rpelagio06 — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:13:13 +0000

Drinking and driving is definitely something that can have serious repercussions not only for the driver but for anyone who has the unfortunate luck of crossing paths with someone who drives under the influence. Furthermore, I agree that the punishment of taking away someone’s license until the age of 21 may be somewhat harsh, but as far as providing a deterrent against future drunk driving teens, I feel it works very well. Teens really have no excuse when drinking and driving since I don’t believe anyone is unaware of the dangers of driving under these conditions, and for this reason they deserve this degree of punishment if they still decide to endanger other people’s lives through their irresponsible behavior.

Comment on Supreme Court to rule on violent video games and minors by rpelagio06

rpelagio06 — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:05:27 +0000

I agree that the majority of the burden in keeping a child away from inappropriate programs and video games should be carried by a child’s parent. However, in today’s society in which both parents commonly hold full time jobs in order to provide for the family, I think that strict adherence to government precautions such as the ESRB ratings can help to keep kids safe. Also, the exposure to inappropriate materials in today’s highly technological society makes it nearly impossible for parents alone to keep their children safe from such things and therefore requires some degree of government interference to achieve this.

Comment on Fool’s Gold? The case of Olympic hosting by rpelagio06

rpelagio06 — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:43:07 +0000

Although Greece did not see the type of recovery as a result of the Olympic games as was hoped by the country’s leadership, I don’t think that this should affect the perception of how helpful the games can actually be for a country’s economy. As the article says, the Olympic games provide a temporary boost for the country’s economy and if this was not enough to bring Greece back onto it’s feet, then its economic problems must have been more deeply rooted than could be fixed by a quick infusion of prosperity by the Olympics.

Furthermore, I think that countries should still petition to host the Olympics since the benefits can greatly outweigh the costs.