One example that comes to mind (there are others) is Fintan O'Toole's recent assertion in an Irish Times Opinion piece that no employee should be allowed to take home more than €75,000 net of tax. That is demonstrably stupid, if you take a real world situation where someone is paid commission equal to a percentage of their sales. The alternatives are (1) for the employee to stop working when they reach the magic number, (2) to pay 100% marginal tax after 75k net, (3) for the employer to limit the employee's commission and so reap windfall profits or finally, (4) for the customers (who have bought the product in a competitive market) to be charged less. All the above options are equally and demonstrably stupid.
I'm sure that numerous letter writers have pointed this out to the Irish Times, yet not even a single letter critical of Fintan O'Toole's "opinion" has been published. I know that I for one pointed this out. My letter wasnt' published. In general, readers of the Irish Times are an intelligent lot and I am pretty sure that there were many others who also wrote to point this out, but the Irish Times chose not to publish any of those letters.