Public Goods, Externalities, and Education - Econlib (2024)

Ryan

Aug 27 2008 at 6:29pm

David Friedman is famous for pointing out that the externalities from more education could well be negative. That a well educated population might be better at rent seeking.

We wouldn’t have to look far for prominent examples; were the externalities of Barack and Michelle Obama’s education negative for Chicagoans? Now that the U of Illinois is allowing researchers access to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge–chaired by Barack Obama–we probably can put a number on it.

At risk of harping on something that’s not the subject of the post:

Arnold asks: “How should income redistribution be handled?”

This is the second time in a week I’ve seen a supporters of free-markets use the term “redistribution” when connected to income. And I’m pretty sure that in both cases, the authors do not believe that income is “distributed.” (Especially this case, as Arnold knows much more than I do about economics and surely other issues as well.) Rather, income derives from creating wealth.

So this is partly a pet peeve of mine, and also a concern that words are important, and the terms we use frame the debate. For example, with education, I say “government schools” instead of “public education.” It’s more accurate, and still unbiased.

So doesn’t using the term “income redistribution” grant the premise that (something) distributed income in the first place, and hence make coercive “redistribution” by politicians sound more legitimate?

Yet, with my criticism, I’d like to propose a pithy alternative phrase, but am at a loss. The ones I can come up with are probably too value-laden, e.g., legalized robbery. Congress does have an “appropriations committee” though.

Suggestions? Or does no one else care?

Snark

Aug 27 2008 at 9:52pm

Yet, with my criticism, I’d like to propose a pithy alternative phrase, but am at a loss. The ones I can come up with are probably too value-laden, e.g., legalized robbery. Congress does have an “appropriations committee” though.

Suggestions? Or does no one else care?

I think “extortion” fits like a glove.

Stefano

Aug 28 2008 at 3:39am

“Distribution” doesn’t necessarily imply that it’s the result of someone or something intentionally distributing. It may be the result of a natural process.

For example the geographic distribution of an animal species, or a statistical distribution.

Horatio

Aug 28 2008 at 7:16am

scott clark

Aug 28 2008 at 11:21am

I disagree about the security guard. I don’t quite understand why you would want to task him or her with patrolling your whole neighborhood, but his presence may discourage criminals, and thus benefit your neighbors and be non-excludable, but I don’t think consumption of the security is nonrivalrous. If the security guard is dealing with an issue in one part of the neighborhood, he is necessarily not dealing with any issues in another part of the neighborhood. He can’t be in two places at once, so, while it probably won’t come up, two crimes at the same time, the security guard is not truely non-rivalrous. Even if the crimes happen one after the other, the fact that the security guard dealt with the first one may make him less able to deal with the second one, he may be more tired, more prone to making a mistake, less able to focus on the new threat. Hard for me to see why this meets both criteria for a public good.

the same goes for national defense. there may be an aspect of non-excludability, but not non-rivalry. Tanks and planes in Alaska, and missle defense in Poland, don’t actually directly protect Fairfax. They may get tasked to protect Fairfax, but they had to be taken from somewhere else. The Pentagon gets to do the allocation, and thus a rivalry is set up for the consumption of those resources, and the Pentagon decides what gets protected, and what gets left more vulnerable.

eccdogg

Aug 28 2008 at 2:25pm

“Yet, with my criticism, I’d like to propose a pithy alternative phrase, but am at a loss. The ones I can come up with are probably too value-laden, e.g., legalized robbery. Congress does have an “appropriations committee” though.

Suggestions? Or does no one else care?”

How about “Wealth or Income Transfer” not too value laden and covey’s what you are doing transfering from one person to the other.

Arnie Kriegbaum

Aug 31 2008 at 6:46pm

Anon

Sep 2 2008 at 1:34pm

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