This is how the free-market economist bloggers at Marginal Revolution ask for donations: Efficiency says that goods with zero marginal cost should have a zero price but without prices not only is the incentive to produce diminished but so is information about what to produce. [...] Donations allow prices to be set at [marginal cost] while at the same time providing a (noisy) … [Read more...] about Free-Market Begging
Economics
Buy Nothing Day
Today is Black Friday in the United States, the start of the Christmas shopping season. It's also Buy Nothing Day, a day of protest against consumerism promoted by Adbusters magazine. But if they're against consumerism, I wish they'd explain what they want to replace it with. If obtaining and consuming goods and services is not the purpose of our participation in the … [Read more...] about Buy Nothing Day
Fighting High Prices With Scarcity
The government of Hawaii just made a terrible mistake: In an effort to gain some control over what motorists pay at the pump, Hawaii on Wednesday became the first state in the U.S. to set caps on the wholesale price of gasoline. Economists have observed that setting below-market price caps on a good causes that good to become scarce. It has nothing to do with producers being … [Read more...] about Fighting High Prices With Scarcity
Choice: No Fruits, No Shirts, No Service
I've been slowly working my way through Choice: The Best of Reason, edited by Nick Gillespie, Reason's Editor-in-Chief. I subscribe to Reason, and I normally read through each issue over a period of a couple of hours. Then I have to wait a month to do it all over again. Choice, however, is a collection of very meaty material, so I've been waiting after each article to let it … [Read more...] about Choice: No Fruits, No Shirts, No Service
Deposit and Return
In the hope of encouraging more recycling, Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn is pushing a 5-cent deposit for beverage containers. Unclaimed deposits would be used for environmental programs. I think this is a terrific idea. It will save me a lot of work because I can now just toss this stuff out the car window when I'm driving, secure in the knowledge that the state already … [Read more...] about Deposit and Return