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This feels like yet another one of those "everything wrong with the world in microcosm" things.

From a high altitude, it's clearly insane to decimate wildlife for a niche product which can be made synthetically. Yet interacting networks of self-interest have conspired to cause American society to reject the clearly superior alternative. The guy whose job is to go out and catch horseshoe crabs doesn't know how to make synthetic crab blood - all he wants to do is catch even more crabs. He enjoys a monopoly on the product domestically - which leads to de-facto regulatory capture and insurmountable moat for potential competitors. Foreign companies attempt to step in, and now suddenly it's a question of national security and the heels really dig in.

The world is full of these awful traps. When will we learn that you can't just cross your fingers and hope that society spontaneously self-organizes into a sensible shape?