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This was used in one of the Discword novels (Soul Music): Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city council coun

This was used in one of the Discword novels (Soul Music): Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city council countered it by offering twenty pence for every rat tail. This did, for a week or two, reduce the number of rats—and then people were suddenly queueing up with tails, the city treasury was being drained, and no one seemed to be doing much work. And there still seemed to be a lot of rats around. Lord Vetinari had listened carefully while the problem was explained, and had solved the thing with one memorable phrase which said a lot about him, about the folly of bounty offers, and about the natural instinct of Ankh-Morporkians in any situation involving money: “Tax the rat farms.”

CryptoPunk 5y ago
That last line might actually lead to the solution. Have a rat tax levied on land owners, in proportion to their alottment of land, and how many rats government officials find in the district where the respective land holdings are situated, and empower land owners to appoint whichever rat exterminator that they like for their district. I imagine that will lead to the incentives needed to solve the problem.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  It might also lead to significant poisoning/extermination of wildlife other than rats. (Feral cats are cheap and “all natural” for example.)
- dmos62 5y ago
  I can only see the image of a man they call Cat Driver, the bane of rats. His pack of ferocious felines, about three score, their leashes bound in his callous hands, trained in the deadly art of Ea'tin A'Ra-t, they track and murder every poor beady-eyed non-soul unfortunate enough to be within a league of a nose.
  - jrockway 5y ago
    Then when we're overrun by the cats, we'll unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes to keep their population in check. Then when we're overrun by snakes, we have a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. https://youtu.be/3f5viRoaZNw?t=89 https://youtu.be/3f5viRoaZNw?t=89
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    Fun fact, professional rat hunters tend to prefer Dachshunds over cats; they’re easier to train and will hunt on command rather than whim. It’s no good to bring cats only to watch them start murdering pigeons, or take a nap.
    - kleton 5y ago
      Dachshunds over terriers?
      - dexwiz 5y ago
        Dachshunds were bred to get into burrows, hence the sausage shape.
    - bernulli 5y ago
      'Dachshund' literally translates to badger-hound; they're bred to go down burrows and drive out badgers.
  - dirkt 5y ago
    Just use a magic pipe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin: The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats.
- shuntress 5y ago
  I assume you mean this rat tax would be instead of the rat bounty. If that is the case, then I agree it would probably be a better solution than the rat bounty. But, as long as we are exploring alternate solutions to the original problem, my feeling is that it would be better overall to spend more on garbage collection and street cleaning.
neves 5y ago
The same happened in Rio de Janeiro in a campaign against bubonic plague in 1904. This is whats happen when you try to make a duct tape fix for a huge inequality problem. Reference: http://oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br/index.php/en/biography/scientific-career/general-directorate-of-public-health/the-campaign-against-the-bubonic-plague http://oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br/index.php/en/biography/scienti... > Since anyone could sell rats to the government, a new occupation soon appeared in the city: “ratoeiros”—literally, ratters—men who went around town buying up rats at a low price and selling them to the General Directorate of Public Health. There were even some who raised rats at home for this very purpose and also those who traveled to other cities to find them. In a short while, the “ratter” trade was doing a booming business.

CryptoPunk 5y ago

That last line might actually lead to the solution. Have a rat tax levied on land owners, in proportion to their alottment of land, and how many rats government officials find in the district where the respective land holdings are situated, and empower land owners to appoint whichever rat exterminator that they like for their district. I imagine that will lead to the incentives needed to solve the problem.

sokoloff 5y ago
It might also lead to significant poisoning/extermination of wildlife other than rats. (Feral cats are cheap and “all natural” for example.)
dmos62 5y ago
I can only see the image of a man they call Cat Driver, the bane of rats. His pack of ferocious felines, about three score, their leashes bound in his callous hands, trained in the deadly art of Ea'tin A'Ra-t, they track and murder every poor beady-eyed non-soul unfortunate enough to be within a league of a nose.
- jrockway 5y ago
  Then when we're overrun by the cats, we'll unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes to keep their population in check. Then when we're overrun by snakes, we have a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. https://youtu.be/3f5viRoaZNw?t=89 https://youtu.be/3f5viRoaZNw?t=89
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Fun fact, professional rat hunters tend to prefer Dachshunds over cats; they’re easier to train and will hunt on command rather than whim. It’s no good to bring cats only to watch them start murdering pigeons, or take a nap.
  - kleton 5y ago
    Dachshunds over terriers?
    - dexwiz 5y ago
      Dachshunds were bred to get into burrows, hence the sausage shape.
  - bernulli 5y ago
    'Dachshund' literally translates to badger-hound; they're bred to go down burrows and drive out badgers.
- dirkt 5y ago
  Just use a magic pipe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin: The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats.
shuntress 5y ago
I assume you mean this rat tax would be instead of the rat bounty. If that is the case, then I agree it would probably be a better solution than the rat bounty. But, as long as we are exploring alternate solutions to the original problem, my feeling is that it would be better overall to spend more on garbage collection and street cleaning.

neves 5y ago

The same happened in Rio de Janeiro in a campaign against bubonic plague in 1904. This is whats happen when you try to make a duct tape fix for a huge inequality problem. Reference: http://oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br/index.php/en/biography/scientific-career/general-directorate-of-public-health/the-campaign-against-the-bubonic-plague http://oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br/index.php/en/biography/scienti... > Since anyone could sell rats to the government, a new occupation soon appeared in the city: “ratoeiros”—literally, ratters—men who went around town buying up rats at a low price and selling them to the General Directorate of Public Health. There were even some who raised rats at home for this very purpose and also those who traveled to other cities to find them. In a short while, the “ratter” trade was doing a booming business.