[Antrax]

Cracked (the most successful comedy webpage on the internet) ran my very first article for them today. Go read it, tell your friends, astound your wife and shock your neighbors.
http://www.cracked.c...in-reality.html

As a bonus, you can leverage it into a discussion of gun control or government intervention in general, which is what the people in the comments are doing.

[jjbrr]

"And what's worse than a cobra infestation? Nothing. Nothing is worse than a cobra infestation."

O rly?

[Fluffy]

cobras eat rats so you've got a solution...

[barmar]

I'm very tempted to put a link to this article in a sticky post in the "Changing Laws & Regulations" forum.

[Antrax]

 Fluffy, on 2013-December-05, 10:30, said:

cobras eat rats so you've got a solution...

One of the entries that didn't make the cut was a story about how in Marion Island they had a mouse problem they tried to fix by bringing over some domestic cats. The cats bred out of control and became a much worse pest than the mice ever were, it became such an issue they eventually had to spread a feline disease. Unfortunately the story ends there, the disease didn't backfire, got rid of the cats, and they were back to square 1.

[diana_eva]

I thought I was liking your article on FB (clicked the Like button at the end) and ended up posting some stupid **** that I hadn't even read, and not being able to unlike it

[nigel_k]

Great article. Not sure about the fishing quota one though. Yes, you can dump the excess fish but surely it's easier to just stop fishing and go home once you hit the limit.

[GreenMan]

 nigel_k, on 2013-December-05, 22:44, said:

Great article. Not sure about the fishing quota one though. Yes, you can dump the excess fish but surely it's easier to just stop fishing and go home once you hit the limit.

That would be true if there were only one kind of fish. But when the fish you can sell at a profit are a small portion of what you haul onto your boat, you throw everything else back over the side, usually after it's died in the open air.

[Antrax]

Diana, sorry about that I guess it was one of their advertisers? I normally just copy/paste the article URL instead of using fancy buttons.

nigel, there were more sources beyond what made it to the entry - in reality that stuff happens, a lot. I don't remember if the article had that statistic, but bycatch accounts for 20-30% of the total catch in some European countries. The root problem always was the indiscriminate techniques used to haul fish - right now they're just using a big-ass net and throwing overboard everything they weren't legally allowed to catch.

[Cyberyeti]

 Antrax, on 2013-December-05, 11:54, said:

One of the entries that didn't make the cut was a story about how in Marion Island they had a mouse problem they tried to fix by bringing over some domestic cats. The cats bred out of control and became a much worse pest than the mice ever were, it became such an issue they eventually had to spread a feline disease. Unfortunately the story ends there, the disease didn't backfire, got rid of the cats, and they were back to square 1.

Cane toads, another disaster of introducing a species where it didn't belong.

[Antrax]

Yep. Unfortunately it was already used on Cracked in a different article, and they never recycle.

[gwnn]

 Antrax, on 2013-December-06, 00:29, said:

Diana, sorry about that I guess it was one of their advertisers? I normally just copy/paste the article URL instead of using fancy buttons.

I copied the URL too and the link on my wall points to your article, but the link itself just has the title "Cracked.com - America's Only Humor Site | Cracked.com" without any reference to your article. Hm maybe because I linked to the second part by mistake?

[diana_eva]

 gwnn, on 2013-December-06, 08:14, said:

I copied the URL too and the link on my wall points to your article, but the link itself just has the title "Cracked.com - America's Only Humor Site | Cracked.com" without any reference to your article. Hm maybe because I linked to the second part by mistake?

Yeah you linked to page 2, I noticed too. In my case tho I simply wanted to plant a Like on the article itself, not share it. The site is structured weirdly - the Like button for Doron's article is at the beginning, on the side, not at the end. What I clicked at the end was one of their featured stories suggested as an after-read.

[Vampyr]

Rent control drives rents sky-high.

[Antrax]

Vampyr, you'd be amazed how difficult it is to source that claim. Every economist on earth will agree with you in theory, but in practice it proved impossible to find a simple example where I could say "they did this and it resulted in that". The good example I knew of (from the Sowell book) was too depressing for a comedy website - you can't wring jokes out of old people being tossed to the street by their landlords preempting tenant protection laws.

[GreenMan]

You also have to look at what happens when rent-control laws are cut back or removed: Rents triple or more. Happened in Boston some years back; my cousin had to abandon his apartment because his rent increased 400% overnight.

[Vampyr]

 GreenMan, on 2013-December-06, 12:55, said:

You also have to look at what happens when rent-control laws are cut back or removed: Rents triple or more.

For longterm tenants, yes. I am not positive, but I assume that the rents are raised to the level that new tenants have to pay (basically the market value). I am not entirely against subsidised housing for those who need it, but it strikes me as a bit unfair that it should be private individuals ie the landlords, who are forced to pay the subsidy.

Unless they are compensated for it. Tax breaks for rental property owners could help to keep rents low, and avoid the scarcity of rental properties that rent control engenders. But helping "the man" goes against liberal sensibilities, so I am sure that this solution is rarely favoured over rent control.

[helene_t]

 Vampyr, on 2013-December-06, 15:40, said:

I am not entirely against subsidised housing for those who need it, but it strikes me as a bit unfair that it should be private individuals ie the landlords, who are forced to pay the subsidy.

Rent control lowers the market value of for-rent properties so prospective landlords just pay less mortgage and get less rent. The losers are those who own the properties at the time when rent control is introduced. The winners are those who own them when rent control is lifted.

In theory rent control is bad. It creates a distorted market in which building for-rent properties has to be subsidized, while conversion of for-rent to home ownership has to be restricted. It creates shortage of rental accommodation. My cousin once thought of buying to rent but was discouraged by the high price/earning ratios. He asked an estate agent how it is possible to sell rental accommodation at a p/e of 50 when the interest rate was 8-9%. The agent was surprisingly honest: as a landlord you have a decent tax-free income from receiving bribes from prospective tenants.

I think I would prefer, at least in theory, to give tax breaks to low-income households so that they can afford to pay the market price for accommodation. In particular, I would prefer the tax and subsidy systems to make no discrimination between home ownership and renting. But it's a bit of an armchair argument.

[PassedOut]

 helene_t, on 2013-December-07, 05:22, said:

I think I would prefer, at least in theory, to give tax breaks to low-income households so that they can afford to pay the market price for accommodation. In particular, I would prefer the tax and subsidy systems to make no discrimination between home ownership and renting. But it's a bit of an armchair argument.

Many years ago, I took as a tenant in the first rental property I ever bought (a triplex) a single mother with subsidized rent. I found that the system worked well. I had to make sure that the building met code and was well-maintained, with regular inspections. The tenant paid the government a portion of the rent (I don't know how much) and the government sent me a check for the full rent each month. So I got normal rent and the tenant got a nice place to raise her children at a bargain. In fact, she was a great tenant, and took very good care of the place.

[hrothgar]

w00t!