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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   30240 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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I got into an argument with my long lost British uncle (long story) about why British style gun control wouldn't work in America. And it largely came down to cultural differences.

I can almost understand the promise that a NHS style institution would work better in the US than it actually does in the UK. My misgivings about things like this, this or this aside. My bigger problem is I don't understand how we get from where we are, to there. It feels like the underpants gnomes joke where they leave out step 2.

I hear people selling "Medicare for All" as the magic bullet for this problem. But I simply don't see how it's possibly to effectively outlaw a 1.5T USD market. Especially within living memory of "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" being a lie.

I mean, the low hanging fruit is to just pay for EMTALA care at hospitals directly(eg Houston’s gold card system).

why British style gun control wouldn't work in America

Debate on liberty aside, it wouldn’t work because there are several hundred million guns in America and only the most law-abiding, prosocial, rule-following people with the most to lose would hand them over during an amnesty before a ban, meaning that precisely the worst kind of people (criminals, violent, high time preference) would be least likely to be disarmed.

In Britain it worked because almost nobody owned a handgun or AK, most gun owners were farmers or hunters who were and are allowed to keep their shotguns and rifles.

Also the UK is an island, and doesn’t share a 2000 mile long land border with a failed state run by gangs, who’s third largest industry is smuggling illegal contraband into their neighboring country.

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