h/t Cafe Hayek
I don't know why, but this quote really resonates with me.
“Prohibiting the sale of certain commodities provides economic opportunities in which young males have a comparative advantage, and this in turn leads to the emergence of a warrior culture that underinvests in family life. Economic activity is separated from family maintenance and organized around capital that can be seized by predation.”*James Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense (New York: Free Press, 1993), p. 175.
I have come to feel that the war on drugs has few benefits
- Making people feel like they're doing something about substance abuse
- Making available a common, high-risk activity for people to make a lot of money (dealing)
- Giving cops a good reason to get a bunch of cool stuff
I never really thought about it as something that encourages predation. I can't think of any more apt description of what the black market for drugs is. Of course there's business reputation, but ultimately the only thing that keeps someone from murdering you and taking your drugs / money is, well, nothing... The punishment for murder is certainly higher than dealing, but the (relatively) secretive nature of drug dealing and the reticence of anyone to implicate themselves or friends by cooperating with the police if their friend/accomplice was murdered allows the fittest (read: most accomplished alpha predator) to thrive.
It feels like this is calling dealers animals, but on further consideration I think it's a fair assessment of incentives and rewards. You can't exactly go to the police to say that someone isn't living up to their contract, or is physically intimidating/harming you or your cohorts. This leaves you to seek out other methods of pairing bad behavior with negative consequences (eg breaking knees, cutting off fingers, listening to the Biebs).
And if you think that I'm just exaggerating, just think of the Valentine's day massacre, and just try to remember the last time someone was gunned down in a "tragic Busch Light deal gone bad"...
