U.S. Crushes 6 Tons of Ivory to "Send Message" to Poachers

Townhall.com ^ | November 17, 2013 | Mike Shedlock

[Jedidah]

I hate this. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Talibanish.

[Iron Munro]

In a supply/demand economy these jerks just reduced the supply and did nothing to reduce demand.

The end result of destroying “old” ivory is to increase pressure to harvest more “new” ivory, not less.

[Vigilanteman]

Well, it sent a message to poachers: The price of ivory will be going through the roof, so you need to do more of the sorry trade you are doing.

[MosesKnows]

The U.S. has been trying to stop it

There are always unintended consequences in the world of central planning. Perhaps that thought could be best expressed thusly, "unrevealed consequences”.

A consequence, unrevealed or unintended, is that the U.S. creates employment for people whose continued employment is dependent on continued ivory poaching.

[HiTech RedNeck]

(Chuckling) That so!

[Venturer]

One of the most stupid messages ever sent.

The message sent to poachers was we destroyed the Ivory you already sent here and got paid for, so go out and get some more.

[Conspiracy Guy]

The poachers already got their money. How stupid and wastfull.

[Dutch Boy]

The entire worldwide elephant population is 500,000. They are vanishing at a rate of 50,000 per year, just for their ivory.

That phrase reminds me of the number of square miles of rain forest being cleared in Brazil. It's very measurable but will likely not reflect reality. Just like Brazil deforestation, the calculated rate of demise will reach 0 long before the reality.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Making it easy to multiply legitimate ivory sources would be a better approach. How many elephants die naturally and their tusks never get used?

[HiTech RedNeck]

And it’s worth more, now!

[lurk]

Another moment when the word government means something a bit less complimentary.

[knarf]

PHHT !!

Y'owe me a keyboard Laz ... go to church and confess the stumbling block you put in front of your brother.

[IMR 4350]

The poachers already made their money, they don’t care what they do with the ivory.

The middle man might be PO’d, but not the poachers.

[HiTech RedNeck]

50,000 elephants’ worth of ivory is how much ivory? Where is it going? I know it sure isn’t becoming piano keys.

I wonder if our scientists can come out of their, er, “ivory towers” and figure out how to get the world more ivory without reducing the world population of elephants.

[Lazamataz]

:)

[DJ Taylor]

"What if instead of crushing that ivory, the US auctioned the ivory with all proceeds going to African nations for anti-poaching efforts?

Some of the reports coming out of Africa indicate that much of this ivory poaching is done by the same agents the government hired to protect these elephants.

[BitWielder1]

How is destruction of valuable materials supposed to fix anything?
Here's what they could have done:
Make Old Ivory legal. New Ivory is already illegal.
Spread some harmless but easily identified isotope across elephant territory, that from then on will be detectable in all new ivory.

[rdcbn]

A smarter thing to do would be to dump it all on the market at once, which would depress prices and make ivory hunting less profitable

[shove_it]

The Regime has made up its mind, don’t confuse them with logic.

[fhayek]

By the way, did you know that you can legally purchase a chess set made out of mammoth ivory? (http://www.houseofstaunton.com/chess-pieces/luxury-wooden-chess-pieces.html?src=left). I guess that now that the species is extinct, what’s the difference? It will only set you back thirteen grand.