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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

Wonder if this is related to the rise of China's economy.

I thought China had brought in a total ban (finally) on both import and sale last year. Obviously there's still smuggling, but I'd hoped the ban would have a noticeably positive effect.

>but I'd hoped the ban would have a noticeably positive effect.

The US bans and controls the sale of a lot of drugs, all we've got 50 years later is another out of control government department.

IIRC I read somewhere that the initial result were positive but we have to wait a bit for the markets to respond to the change.

Smuggling in poached horn is not helping China's economy.

Presumably the commenter intended the opposite relationship: a growing Chinese economy means more money to spend on luxuries like ivory.

I think it would be rather the reverse. If China's economy booms, people there has more money to spend. Among other things they spend it on poached horn.

Yea, it looks like China. We need to stop making cultures rich by making products in the cheapest country--Blah--Blah--Blah. It doesn't look like business as normal will Not change.

The older I get, and the more I find out about the cultural norms in certain countries; the more I want high tariffs, and flat out bans. We will get by with paying more for our stuff.

To send a message, I wouldn't mind seeing a complete ban on ivory here. Yes, gather up all that pre-19whatever Ivory, and burn it. If it sends a slight message to the Chinese, it would be worth it. And this is comming from someone who appreciates old ivory artifacts/collectables. No--I don't own any, out of moral reasons.

Teaching a dumb country, including a large swath of Americans, traditional medicine doesn't work is a whole other problem.

I would like to see guys like Zuckerburg, Buffet, and Gates send Placebo missionaries over to countries like China, and the rest. They could just try to educate these people. They could pay to put up bill boards. They could try?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/what-is-...

China & the U.S. both banned trade in ivory last September:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory#Controversy_and_conserva...

And the U.S. confiscated and crushed a ton of ivory in Times Square last year.

Yeah, those damn Chinese and their idiot culture, not like us Americans with our highly refined sensibilities...

If you're interested in education, rather than having the Great White Hopes do it, perhaps you would consider that there are people there already fighting this fight, and that countries have their own reformers and don't need an injection of Western wisdom.

http://www.upworthy.com/thanks-to-yao-ming-killing-sharks-fo...

Of course China is a factor. Since Mao killed all of the intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, China has lost morality and knows only the ethics of greed and material wealth. With globalization they gained money, and unrestrained by ethics black markets flourish in China, fueled by the nouveau riche.

> Since Mao killed all of the intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, China has lost morality

That didn't help, but I think throwing the whole country into desperate, starving poverty was a much larger contributor.

> Since Mao killed all of the intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, China has lost morality

There are people protesting this in China and China banned trade of ivory. So don't damn the entire nation.

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