How Much Would You Pay to Make Sure You Never Sawed Off a Finger?

Even in the world of woodworking, there are trade-offs at the intersection of policy, public safety, patents and profit.

The New York Times
@mzagaja thanks for sharing! this is so fascinating: government incentivizes an innovation (w/ temporary monopoly) but finds that this leads to a market outcome where the innovation exists (vs a world where it maybe wouldnt exist at all) but with a rent, which limits its distribution. and so now we have to make zero sum tradeoffs about how to allocate the benefits