1. the united states appears at times to have a totally schizophrenic attitude toward protectionism. the united states was the country that proposed the establishment of the world trade organization as early as the late 1940s, and was also the only industrialized country that refused to ratify this at that time. the united states has consistently argued on the side of multinational free trade in gatt rounds, and yet maintains many protectionist laws such as those which reserve oil shipments from alaska to u. s. flag carriers. how can you explain this apparent lack of national consistency on this issue?

This reflects the fact that international trade typically has many winners and relatively fewer, but politically powerful losers. Short of guaranteed (constitutional?) non-conditional compensatory mechanisms, the basic conflict between these two groups will always be there.

as university of miami psychologists debra lieberman and adam smith pointed out in a recent article in the journal current directions in psychological science, humans have social and psychological mechanisms to deter incest. with very few exceptions, marriages between brothers and sisters and between parents and their children are verboten in every human culture. the primary psychological anti-incest mechanism is the yuck response. even the idea of sex with their mom or dad, bro or sis is upsetting to most people. the psychologist jonathan haidt has found that nearly everyone is repelled by the prospect of brother-sister sex, even in hypothetical situations in which there is no chance of pregnancy).

the biological cost of incest

this raises an interesting question: just what’s so bad about incest? sure, having sex with your dad or your sister seems gross — but why? some anthropologists have argued that incest taboos are learned social conventions. this explanation, however, doesn’t make sense to me as it does not explain the widespread existence of anti-incest mechanisms in creatures ranging from cockroaches to chimpanzees. second, the incest taboo is about as close to a universal law as human moral rules get.

why should mechanisms to avoid incest be so widespread both in nature and across human societies? the answer is simple. the problem with having sex close with relatives is that there is an astonishingly high chance that your offspring will be born with a serious birth defect.