Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-ngp.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!glosser From: glosser@ut-ngp.UUCP (glosser) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: a question Message-ID: <1030@ut-ngp.UUCP> Date: Sun, 14-Oct-84 12:57:13 EDT Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1030 Posted: Sun Oct 14 12:57:13 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 16-Oct-84 03:30:00 EDT References: <655@oliven.UUCP> Organization: U.Texas Computation Center, Austin, Texas Lines: 32 If you want to argue it is a good, it is not the same type of good you had in mind. If I were to call liberty a good, it would be an externality. An externality, according to Nobel Laureate in Economics, Kenneth Arrow, "...are goods, they are commodities; they have real pratical, economic value; thet increase the efficiency of the system, enable you to produce more goods or more of wwhatever values you hold in high esteem. But they are not commodities for which trade on the open market is technically possible or even meaningful." It is because of such externalities that markets break down. If you had to put a price on liberty (in terms of dollars or any other currency) would you really have liberty? Given the struggles we all hear about for obtaining liberty, it seems liberty is not a free good either. If you want to argue that liberty is a good and can be allocated, something more than a market is needed for this accomplishment Other ways can be through government, religion, or any other type of collective action that seeks to allocate goods using non market methods. Hence the issue (if you believe liberty is a good) is: given the conflict between social claims and individual self interest, how should liberty be allocated? Given that the market is not capable of resolving such a conflict, what other social institutions are capable for accomplishing such a task? In conclusion, I would like to point out the major drawback of this response. It is not clear what liberty actually means. Further, I argue, it is not possible to define such a vague concept.