No regulations are unbeatable, not even China’s one-child policy

Economists have long told us that people respond to incentives! Given proper incentives, you will be amazed by the kind of genius solutions people can come up with. No regulations are unbeatable, because the people and businesses you are regulating are always more-motivated than employees in regulatory agencies, and they will always be able to find some ways to avoid the regulations. Sometimes, it takes the form of bribery, in the others genius and absolutely legal solutions.

China: Drug bid to beat child ban
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- More Chinese women are exploiting easy access to fertility treatments to skirt China's one-child limit, leading to a boom in numbers of multiple births, an official newspaper reported Monday. The main pediatric hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing recorded 90 births of twins or triplets last year, up from an average of 20 in past years, the China Daily said.

Genius solution notwithstanding, Isn’t it better for people to spend their time and talent in more productive activities (well, certainly having more children is also a “productive” activities) than in avoiding regulations.

Wherever there is a regulation, there is always some way to circumvent it, and this is how tax codes in the United States accumulate to thousands of pages of long, and Americans wastes tens of billon of dollars just to avoid them. By some estimation, it is actually better off for the society if American tax officers are corrupted because you may spend less money bribing them than hiring tax advisors, and in both cases American government won't recieve your money anyway.

Comments

[Naveen]

Lesson to remember!

BTW, great blog, keep it up!