Hanging out waiting for Jebus to call me, I was perusing Reason’s weblog and and came across its entry regarding Japan’s law against selling girls’ underwear. This law makes the sale of said panties illegal, thereby drying up a market in which third parties connect used panties with paying customers. The thrust of the argument Reason quotes is that the law will force Japanese schoolgirls willing to sell their undergarments to find those paying customers themselves rather than sell to panty dealers, thereby putting them in danger of meeting creepy men themselves. Therefore, the law creates more danger than it eliminates. (It’s unclear from the context whether the Reason writer agrees with this line.)

I agree that this law seems pointless, though I too am flummoxed by the idea that people are turned on by second-hand undies. But this bit of unintended consequences-ness was just too much to let pass. I mean, an unrestricted market keeps the freaks at home with their purchases instead of out on the streets attacking girls? Seems to me that a guy who would attack a young girl would do so with or without the presence of such a law. Plus, a girl willing to sell her panties direct, thereby cutting out the inevitable costs of going through a dealer, would do so whether a law’s in effect or not. So relax, free-marketers: This law is weird but it won’t itself hurt anybody.

All this assumes the controversy isn’t a hoax, which I highly suspect.

My two cents.