I don't think that's what's being said. (Perhaps I'm wrong.) The gist I'm getting is, just because you have a hammer doesn't mean everything is a nail. And that yesterday's nail might not be today's nail.

The prevailing issue being, politicians - under the false pretense that they paid to be "leaders" (read: look at me! look at what I can do!!) instead of problem solvers - grab their hammer and do what they already do...pound away.

How's that working out for us?

Note: I'm not suggesting a solution per se. Simply acknowledging that we have a problem, and the general nature of that problem.

I don't think that's as unreasonable as you make it sound. Laws should not be the knee-jerk reaction to every problem; there are many who think they should be effectively be a last-resort measure (when there truly is no other alternative). Obviously, there is large political disagreement on this issue (viz: conservatives vs. liberals, to use American jargon).

I wouldn't qualify this as a knee-jerk reaction. I'm not saying it's not misguided in its current form. What I mean is that tax evasion in the EU is a well-known problem, and a fix is looooong overdue.

> Obviously, there is large political disagreement on this issue (viz: conservatives vs. liberals, to use American jargon).

There is not as much disagreement as it can sometimes seem, between those particular groups, as ID'ed using that jargon.

The American Conservatives and the American Liberals both think that laws should be the knee-jerk reaction to certain sets of problems. Their differences lie in which problems those are: by and large, the Conservatives say that those are the social problems, and the Liberals say that those are the economic problems.

But you are right, there are many who think they should be a last-resort measure in all-but-every case: the American jargon calls them Libertarians, and the American first-past-the-post voting system calls them personae non gratae.