2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: CBS poll: 51% of Millennials voting either Republican or Libertarian (white women only 49%) [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)In some cases there aren't any good solutions.
Being morally outraged at people who watch porn or use drugs is useless and dumb. BTW I think drugs and porn are totally different categories, even if porn might be "addictive" in some sense, it's a far cry from heroin. I have no moral issues with drug use, I've used drugs and don't feel immoral about it. But I do think it's immoral for people to get rich by selling heroin.
You're right, the solution is regulation, but regulation means that some things are illegal. And, in a sense, usury is actually outlawed. In my view, a law that says 30% APR is legal but 300% APR is illegal is comparable to a law that says that pot is legal but heroin is illegal.
But in either case, I agree that the consumer should not be punished. Buying heroin should be treated the same way as getting a credit card or payday loan with 300% APR. In both cases, it's probably a bad idea, even though it might seem like a good idea at the time, but you shouldn't be punished for it. But the people making a profit off of it, who know that it's a bad idea, but also know that humans, being imperfect and irrational, will make certain bad decisions in a predictable way, and know that they can profit from doing harm, should be punished.