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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Ilaine who wrote (21560)6/20/2006 1:41:04 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (3) of 541559
 
Maybe he means holding them with both hands?

I know what he means. He's talking about marginal improvements, the kind you mention. And ignoring my point.

My point is that gun violence is one of those problems that cannot help but continue as long as there are a bazillion guns in circulation. Sure, there are a lot of things you can do around the edges but gun violence will continued unabated or barely so.

There are lots of problems where a partial solution is a win, for example, drug benefits in Medicare, because the interface with the problem is primarily individual. You can help some people without helping everyone. You don't need a critical mass to make the solution work. There are other problems where it's all or nothing, like immigration and guns, because of the integration. Global warming is in this category, too, although of a somewhat different mold. If you're not going to go the whole nine yards on complex systems, a few inches is all but meaningless.

Some people take the approach that it's better to do something than to do nothing. They just feel better doing something, no matter how low the return on investment. And other people think any amount of effort is warranted if it just helps one person. It's fine if they run their personal lives that way. But I don't think that it makes smart public policy. Nor do I think it's helpful if folks are not realistic about what can be accomplished. I'm content to leave children and the dying with their illusions, but not voters.
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