Free market and education

From an undated note on my desk:

Inspired by a letter in the Wall Street Journal (1983-05-05) extolling free enterprise in education.

The free market is not an ideology in itself; it is a realization of a philosophy of diversity of ideas.

The trouble with our free enterprise is that goods and services are judged solely on how much somebody with money (or other barter) is willing to pay.

Calls for action from those who can do nothing

Government leaders from around the world are saying that the actions of Gaddafi of Libya are unacceptable, including Hilary Clinton and Ban Ki-Moon.  However, many commentators from bloggers to the Wall Street Journal are calling for more concrete action.

But what can any government do without making matters worse?

First, they have to get all their citizens out of Libya safely.  There are many thousands from dozens of countries who have to not only get to an airport or a harbor, but the countries have to supply sufficient craft at places where they won't be attacked by pro-Gaddafi supporters.

Second, if they did supply limited military forces at these embarkation points, would that very act put their countrymen in even more danger?  When dealing with delusional leaders, one does have to expect the worse.

Third, if they did invade beyond the embarkation points, would that unleash an even bigger massacre of civilians, Libyans and foreigners alike?

About the only military action would have to be from the Arab League, and many of the members have their own upheavals to deal with.

That leaves only the Libyan Army to resolve the problem.  We are starting to see many units join "the people".  How effective they will be outside the areas that "the people" control remains to be seen.

As more and more cities come under control of anti-Gaddafi groups, we may see an acceleration towards a conclusion favorable to these groups.

Meanwhile, really the best others outside Libya can do is keep up the verbal pressure, make sure information flows out of Libya, and make sure some information gets back in.

I'm missing the boat again on a trend

I got in early on the trend of main frame computers and did quite well in salary and some other perks. Then I switched to microcomputers and blew opportunity after opportunity. In short, I never worked hard enough, smart enough, and long enough at any one idea. I flitted off to another idea when one wasn't an "immediate" success.

Now I seem to be missing another boat on blogging. A Wall Street Journal article published on Yahoo! Finance, "America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire", says that the number of professional bloggers is approaching the number of lawyers. Nearly a half a million bloggers blog for their primary source of income.

The way I'm going, I might get a check from Google for the ads on my web site and this blog in about ten years. That check, if it ever arrives, would pay for two years full membership in Flickr.

Ah, Flickr, another indication of my very amateur status. I have neglected to post a photo for several months and haven't even checked for views or messages for at least two months.

Now I'm scattering myself further by doing more singing, an activity that I will be paid for even less than my blogging and as much as I am for pictures.

But, hey! I'm in all these activities to have fun. I'm retired and the first rule of retirement is to not show up. So, if I don't feel like writing today, I won't. If I don't feel like taking pictures today, I won't. However, I better at least practice singing a bit everyday. That skill disappears faster than photography or writing.

Therein lies the joy of my many activities, I try to do what I please when I please.

And what I please right now is a pint of good beer. Unfortunately, there is no beer in the house. What I don't please is going out to buy some beer. There I go again, putting myself in a no-win situation.

Thank you for reading this far. I hope you had a good chuckle.

Externalities and property rights

Although I have three blog ideas the muse seems to have left me. To keep my six loyal fans coming back, here is a letter to the editor of Barron's that I came across when deleting some old emails. I emailed it on January 11, 2000. At that time, I kept paper copies of any my letters that were published. Since I couldn't find a copy of this one, I presume I won't have the Wall Street Journal lawyers knocking on my door.

Thomas Donlan has it backwards when he states that "Externalities exist where there are no property rights." Externalities exist because ofproperty rights. Further, he limits the definition of an externality when he states it is a "displacement of a privately caused cost into a public expense." An externality is a cost imposed on or a benefit given to parties outside of a voluntary transaction.

The standard example he cites of a polluter dumping waste into a lake has two aspects. There is the public aspect of contaminating the fishing and drinking water of many people. There is also the private aspect of decreasing the value of lakefront property. Donlan states that "the power of property rights" gives the owners claims against the polluter. But how will these claims be settled?

Will the polluter be forced to cease operation? That takes away the "property rights" of the polluter. Will the polluter be forced to pay damages to the lakefront property owners? But that goes against one of the tenets of the "private markets" that Donlan extols so often, namely that all transactions are voluntary. If the lakefront property owners were not in the market to sell their property, why should they be forced to enter into transactions to "sell part of their property"?

Oh, if only people would live by the ideal models of Thomas Donlan on the one hand or of Karl Mark on the other, life would be so much simpler!