4 ms·

I hate the Patriot Act too, but beware unintended consequences. How do you feel about laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964? I think that law continues to se

I hate the Patriot Act too, but beware unintended consequences. How do you feel about laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964? I think that law continues to serve our society well. And I'm certain it would not be renewed by our current Federal government. Ditto for regulations on water, sewage, pharma purity and many other laws that facilitate civilization. It's all very nice to say 'sunset every law', but we depend on many of them being in place. Like removing redundant rivets on an aircraft. You can't be sure which ones are critical. The cost of discovering that can be quite high.

dmix 9y ago
> How do you feel about laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964? I think that law continues to serve our society well. Maybe certain parts of it - yes. But I've read many articles talking about how housing segregation is far worse than it was even before the civil rights act. The act explicitly cites this problem yet completely failed to address it. Some acts can have obvious no-debate reenactment. But this deters broad sweeping legislation from being passed, if subsets are not well thought out or are pigeonholed in. Why not pin sections onto acts so you can easily repeat ones with strong data/political support, while ending other less effective parts? That said, there should no doubt be a dichotomy between human rights and constitutional limitations (which are pre-emptive limitations on legislation) and the general type of policies passed by congress. My primary focus is on economy law as well. Social law might be more socially evolutionary.