Stuart_Armstrong comments on How should negative externalities be handled? (Warning: politics) - Less Wrong Discussion
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Do you think this is a good case for that kind of interventions?
Or are we thinking "second best" just because the first best options are not politically viable?
I am not remotely qualified to say whether or not it's a good case, but it is an extremely unusual situation which deviates from micro market assumptions along numerous dimensions.
When it comes to things like civil ordinance and domestic tomato produce, standard micro analysis is pretty good at capturing the salient characteristics of the situation and proposing remedial policy. In the case of high-profile issues, you're selecting for aberrant situations with unusual characteristics. In those cases, it's worth giving more consideration to ugly and distasteful interventions as well as smart and elegant ones.