Free markets for me but not for thee

by on October 3, 2006 · 4 comments

From Cafe Hayek. Funny.

SHARE: 4 comments

About Solveig Singleton

Solveig Singleton is a lawyer and writer, with ventures into ceramic sculpture, photography, painting, and animal welfare work. Past venues for her policy work include the Cato Institute (mostly free speech, telecom, and privacy), the Competitive Enterprise Institute (mostly privacy and ecommerce), the Progress and Freedom Foundation (mostly IP). She is presently an adjunct fellow with the Institute for Policy Innovation and is working on a new nonprofit venture, the Convergence Law Institute. She holds degrees from Cornell Law School and Reed College. Favorite Movie: Persuasion. Favorite Books: Dhalgren; Villette; Freedom and the Law. Favorite Art: Kinetic sculpture--especially involving Roombas. Most obsolete current technology deployed: a 30 yr. old Canon AE-1. Music: these days, mostly old blues, classical guitar, Poe, Cowboy Junkies, Ministry. Phobia: Clowns.

Read more articles by Solveig Singleton.

  • Brian Moore

    This is why de-regulating specific industries is so unsuccessful. It’s distributed benefit vs concentrated pain. Society as a whole has only a small (individual) motivation to de-regulate an industry, while those in it have a very large incentive, and so they make lots of noise (and campaign donations).

    The best way (short of dictatorial control) is to find the situations where a small group of people is directly harmed by the regulation/subsidies (say, the alternative competitors of an industry) and organize them against it.

  • Brian Moore

    This is why de-regulating specific industries is so unsuccessful. It’s distributed benefit vs concentrated pain. Society as a whole has only a small (individual) motivation to de-regulate an industry, while those in it have a very large incentive, and so they make lots of noise (and campaign donations).

    The best way (short of dictatorial control) is to find the situations where a small group of people is directly harmed by the regulation/subsidies (say, the alternative competitors of an industry) and organize them against it.

  • Doug Lay

    My favorite example of this phenomenon is the DMCA anti-circumvention provision, written, bought and paid for by Big Content, and defended by their apologists in “free market” think tanks.

  • Doug Lay

    My favorite example of this phenomenon is the DMCA anti-circumvention provision, written, bought and paid for by Big Content, and defended by their apologists in “free market” think tanks.

Previous post:

Next post: