Usability II

We tend to see any scenario in one of two ways.  The average, or normalized, case versus the most recent exceptional case.  We tend to think of these as mutually exclusive but of more or less equal importance.  When we encounter a new exception, we might replace the old exception.  We will either discard the old exception, or normalize it into the average case.  We still are left with two views.

Government Obstructions on Importation and Immigration Are Parallel Forms of Plunder

When the government imposes tariffs or import quotas, it harms a few foreigners — exporting producers and their workers mainly — but it harms far more people in the country with these trade obstructions, who suffer an absence of superior options or face higher prices for the imported types of goods on the domestic market owing to lessened competition.

Ethics 101: Reciprocity

People have been arguing about how to deal with ideas of right and wrong for a very long time. Even now, reasonable people sometimes disagree about where exactly to draw the ethical line on some complex issues. After all, the world is a complicated place. That being said, one idea has emerged over and over again in the quest to understand right and wrong from essentially every cultural, religious, and philosophical tradition: the ethic of reciprocity.