Illegal is Not the Answer

If you want less of something in society, making it illegal is not always the answer.

The classic example is prohibition. This was tried in the 1920s, and it failed so spectacularly that it was repealed within a couple of years.

But there are many other things that people want to stop, and the default solution seems to be making whatever it is illegal. But is that always the best solution?

Sometimes, behavior is too widespread to stop, like with alcohol consumption. The small minority of people who wanted everyone else to stop doing it could not possibly control the large majority of those who wanted to keep drinking.

In other cases, people were simply so desperate to do what they had to that they didn't care about breaking the law or even endangering their own lives--like with abortion.

In any case, it doesn't make sense to repeat the mistakes of the past, and solve our problems by creating worse ones. This website exists to remind people that there are other ways to change society--saner, easier, less destructive ways. Maybe some day, everyone will finally give up trying to force other people to do what they want. Until then, we're here to remind you that Illegal is Not the Anwser.

---

The format used for editing this site is called Markdown. Check out the cheat sheet.

last updated 2 years ago #