The Chilling Effect of Confiscation

post by jefftk (jkaufman) · 2020-04-25T02:50:03.564Z · LW · GW · 7 comments

Contents

7 comments

The federal government has been seizing mask imports:

Some states have responded by importing masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) outside of standard channels:

And there's an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about a hospital administrator working to line up a shipment and narrowly avoiding confiscation.

Much more impactful than what these seizures are pushing people to do, however, is what they're pushing people not to do. A hospital administrator or governor who could be prioritizing sourcing PPE has many other things they could focus on, and if the PPE they import has a large chance of getting seized they're going to prioritize those other things on the margin. Independent importers likewise can't risk having their goods seized without payment, as Indutex reported ("Let's not forget I paid $4 million for this product on March 18. I don't have any money and I don't have any product and there's people that are asking for it.") Making deals with factories and prepaying so they can ramp up production is super valuable, and we'll see less of it the more risk there is of having your goods taken.

So much of this crisis has been poorly handled that any individual bit I pick to look at seems like it's not worth focusing on, but this policy is not just foolish, it's foolish in a way that you might have thought conservatives might have avoided? Like, conservatives saying we should avoid lockdowns and let people decide risk for themselves is the sort of policy disagreement I'd expect to have, but using the federal government to grab things, discouraging private initiative and investment, really?

7 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by Ben Pace (Benito) · 2020-04-25T03:09:13.446Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

You had to know that from the title I was expected a post about raising children.

comment by jimrandomh · 2020-04-25T18:00:30.578Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I have a suspicion that some of these seizures are not actually being done by the federal government, but actually are straightforward robberies where the thieves lie about their identity.

comment by [deleted] · 2020-04-26T21:12:01.504Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Foolish, yes. This is what happens when parasitic short-term-focused elements take over and blow up a cooperative system. Happens all the time in symbiotic systems with parasites, cheaters, cancer.

Replies from: william-walker
comment by William Walker (william-walker) · 2020-04-28T22:38:44.714Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I agree with CellBioGuy. Coincidentally I was a Cell Bio Guy... guess we were hardened by the Incubator Space Wars and their bitter aftermath ;)

comment by hg00 · 2020-04-26T08:41:32.434Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I think this is the best argument I've seen in favor of mask seizure / media misrepresentation on this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/g5yh64/us_federal_government_seizing_ppe_to_what_end/fo6pyel/

Replies from: jkaufman
comment by jefftk (jkaufman) · 2020-04-26T12:40:55.240Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

That comment doesn't address seizures and their incentive effects at all?

comment by lc · 2020-04-25T09:27:06.542Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Hey, I was only following orders.