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A sample of a government issued vaccination certificate
Every government intervention creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government intervention.
– Ludwig von Mises
Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance staff were not shocked to learn that fraudulent documents claiming to be Australian government issued vaccination certificates were available at about the same price as a carton of black market cigarettes .
“Every time the government thinks about creating rules, it only increases the incentives for people to break them,” said Gabe Buckley, chief operating officer of the Australian Taxpayers Alliance. “The more the government tries to coerce society with vaccine and other passports, the more attractive the alternatives to compliance become. “
“We have a manual example of the phenomenon in action with Australia’s tobacco laws. The more difficult the government makes the purchase of legitimate cigarettes, the more black market tobacco floods the market. Mr. Buckley – a former IT consultant – went on to explain that such legislation, often drafted in a hurry, generates a flurry of activity aimed at exploiting the weaknesses of the technological solutions offered by companies. governments sorely lacking in technical skills. “We’ve seen it with every contact tracing app released by governments. They are disassembled with the source code available online in a few hours.
ATA Chief Economist Dr John Humphreys explained that the potential for increased criminal activity is a well-understood phenomenon in economics. “The perverse incentives and the potential for unintended consequences have been understood for some time. Economics is the study of human decision making, government seems to be resistant to the idea that humans even make decisions.
Over-reliance on technological solutions and the growing tendency to co-opt companies into their enforcement regimes also pose specific problems for lawmakers. “The level of technological skill required to adequately secure a digital resource such as vaccine certificates is simply beyond the understanding of most people, there is no such thing as a non-hackable system,” Buckley said.
