I got to Reason Magazine – Ghetto Capitalists from a link from a link from a link from Fark – but it’s an interesting read. It’s review of a book about the economics of the urban poor, and a reminder that there is an economy and capitalism, even among the urban poor. It’s also an argument for deregulation that you probably won’t find anywhere else.
Huh. Why didn’t I think of the paperwork angle?
It’s a challenge, isn’t it? On one hand it’s the government’s job to keep its citizens safe, and sometimes that means enacting rules and regulations on the safety of those citizens. But on the other hand, sometimes the safety that comes from those regulations stifles the commerce that keeps some of those citizens alive. Someone is always going to be screaming that we need more protection, and someone is always going to suffer (rightly or wrongly) from the addition of that protection. Bit of a catch-22 isn’t it?