Isn’t that what owner means?
Monday, 16 July 2007 by Jacob TomawJos doesn’t think we should air our dirty laundry. I agree, we should deal with our private issues privately; but I don’t think it is out of school to announce that we fight from time to time. However, I think our fights have a little different character than most married couples. We quickly resolve issues about chores and “typical” married issues you might find on sitcoms. However, if it comes to the role of government, you had better watch out. If a modern liberal is for 50% of a role and a modern conservative is for 30%, Jos is for 0.0001% and it is safe to say I am for less.
A while ago we were shopping and started talking about Andrew Speaker’s TB induced quarantine. Our opinions differed and we agreed to disagree. Now Robert P. Murphy has an article that sheds some new light on the case. I learned a lot that I did not know concerning what Mr. Speaker was told for the last 6 months. Also Mr. Murphy has a premise that I think Jos and I can agree would make America better
But suppose the government did act as if owners really had the right to control who used their property. What voluntary institutions would spring up to help a free society cope with the problem of contagious diseases?
I am not sure this will square the libertarian quarantine issue for Jos, but I found it a good read.
Posted in Freemarket, politics
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:52
“Major property owners would probably have prearranged agreements on how to deal with cases like this, so that the response could be coordinated.”
And how exactly is this different from Government except by degree? It seems, when pressed, you end up moving into something resembling. . oh, I don’t know. . .a social contract? And with the airlines paying private companies to track down these people, can you be certain that accounting for transaction costs, this market clears? The cost of obtaining such information would be relevant as well as the expected payoff for the airlines. Airlines would certainly incurr a large loss if they let someone with TB on their plane, but clearly this is such a remote possibility, they may not be willing to pay large sums for the information.
Just a thought. . .
July 18th, 2007 at 14:58
It also differs from government in how the action is taken. Government uses force and property owners exercising their rights is voluntary action. A contract is voluntarily entered into, both side are able to interpret the agreement, and disputes are mediated by a third party. None of this is true here.
Let us say this market does not clear. It may not, but we don’t know so let’s assume it does not for now. Is a market’s failure to clear the criteria for government action? How would we know if a market does not clear? If the government takes control of a market then at a later time the transaction costs declined or entrepreneurs innovates and the market would clear, would we expect government to give up its power?
July 18th, 2007 at 15:34
How exactly does this this third party administer in a way that the government does (ideally) not? For both you agreed to a set of rules and were aware of the sanction should you not comply, no? The government just involves more parties than you’re allowing for here. Yeah they messed up. . but again, it’s only the second quarantine since the sixties!!! Not really the strongest case of blatant power wielding, in my book. What kind of father are you to be if you’re going to throw the baby out with the bath water?
And yes, if you could certainly make the case that we would all be better off with a private company administering this sort of thing, then I would expect my government to yield it’s power. I think I’d need to see more solid evidence than the lofty theorizing done here.
July 18th, 2007 at 15:41
And why do you bother to refer to economics if ultimately a cost/benefit analysis is completely uninteresting to you? If you’re always going to return to “‘Cause nobody can make me do anything ever ever ever!” then there’s really no point in discussing the virtues of markets.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:13
In case anyone’s reading this, I do not actually think that Jacob will throw our baby out with its bath water. I think he will be an excellent father.