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A comment on Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane alternative to jail. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by btilly on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @04:24PM (#16632230)
Your questions remind me of how Eli Whitney's cotton gin, originally invented for the purpose of making the lives of slaves better, instead dramatically increased the demand for slaves causing the enslavement of millions.

See http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/2... for more details on that example.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by kornish on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @04:57PM (#16632575)
Sounds like an instance of Jevons' Paradox.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by btilly on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @05:16PM (#16632741)
I don't remember running across that paradox before.

It clearly is an example.

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