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From: fagin@ucbvax.ARPA (Barry Steven Fagin)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: The free market and scuba diving
Message-ID: <10169@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 17:36:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10169
Posted: Fri Aug 23 17:36:12 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 00:15:02 EDT
References: <9563@ucbvax.ARPA> <1106@umcp-cs.UUCP> <10166@ucbvax.ARPA>
Reply-To: fagin@ucbvax.UUCP (Barry Steven Fagin)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 20

I just got back from a vacation in Hawaii, and had an interesting
experience worthy of a net.politics posting.

My wife and I decided to go scuba diving; she's experienced, while I
had never been before.  When we went to get equipment, the dive
shop wouldn't rent anything to me because I wasn't certified; my
wife had to get gear at two different dive shops in her name.  I
spoke at great length with a dive shop owner about this.  Apparently,
there are no laws in Hawaii that forbid renting to non-certified divers.
Instead, the companies that insure the dive shops require that their
customers be certified.  My gut reaction was "What a crock", since in
diving I endanger only myself and perhaps my wife, and we're both
consenting adults, but since the regulations were strictly
noncoercive I couldn't get too riled up.  An interesting example of
how the free market keeps a sport safe, even though it may piss
off libertarians.

--Barry
-- 
Barry Fagin @ University of California, Berkeley