Truck and Barter

Still More Porn Lessons

The ever interesting Michael at 2Blowhards had the following post on the history of porn in Denmark:

Porn was legalized in two stages. The first, in 1967, lifted restrictions on print porn ("print" as in "text" -- novels, etc). The second stage ended restrictions on virtually all other kinds of porn.

While the business of erotic novels and such had flourished under censorship in a modest and illicit way, once this work was made legal everyone lost interest in it. The market for it collapsed.

Legislators took the second step -- making all other kinds of porn legal -- believing that the demise of text-porn was a trustworthy predictor of the move's consequences. Instead, demand for all these other kinds of porn (pictures, movies, etc) exploded.

Unsure what to make of this but ever-curious.

My take: I think one needs to look at a much broader level as well. Enacting a law is the typical default response from lawyers and politicians when they see a vice. But for laws to be effective there probably needs to be a social will to enforce those laws. To quote a great sociologist Emile Durkheim, “When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.” By hurrying to enact laws, we are also taking away responsible behavior as well.

Vice Squad from the Maldives

The local daily Haveeru reported in July 2003 the following story of a teenager who was fined for downloading porn over the internet:

An 18-year-old man has been fined Rf1,000 (about US$78) by the Criminal Court for downloading pornographic pictures from the Internet.

Haveeru has been informed that this is the first conviction of such kind in Maldives which has no cyber laws in force yet.

A cyber expert was present at the trial and the historic ruling on July 8 was passed on the context that under Maldives' existing laws, downloading pornography from the Internet amounted to "importing pornographic material into the Maldives from a foreign source," Criminal Court's senior magistrate Hassan Saeed told Haveeru on Thursday.

It is obvious the lawyer who tried the poor teenager did it for his own vanity and ambitious lawyers are the last thing a poor country needs.

The economist Steven Landsburg, in his book Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values and the Meaning of Life gives the following advice to his daughter.

Surf the Internet. I’d much rather have you getting your pornography from cyberspace than by rummaging around your parents’ bedroom.

In fact, I’m glad the net makes it easy for you to get ahold of things that other people would prefer you not to get ahold of. Family values crusader Donna Rice complains that “any child with a computer can access vile pornography in matter of seconds. And once they have seen it, it can never be erased from their mind.” You betcha, Donna. The Internet is the natural enemy of those who are out to erase other people’s minds.

Let’s be honest- access to pornography is not part of the cost of the Internet; it’s one of the benefits. The whole purpose of the Internet is to facilitate communication and to thwart those who would hamper the free exchange of information.

Lawyers will probably not understand it. For more on economics of vice see the excellent blog Vice Squad.

Cheap Gas or a Higher Dow?

Here's a side-effect of climbing crude prices I haven't seen much talk of in the press:

U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as investors express optimism that earnings from bellwethers such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM - news) will rally blue chip stocks for a third day.

Of course, the continued growth of oil prices will have the opposite effect eventually.

I just like seeing the idea of trade-offs in action.

See! SEE!!

Now, I don't want to say I told you so...but my views on electronic voting are pretty evident.

So I'll just point to this article and let you come to your own conclusions.

Touchscreen Vote Records Lost in Florida

MIAMI - A computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines, raising again the specter of elections troubles in Florida, where the new technology was supposed to put an end to such problems.

The problem with these things goes beyond tampering to simple user error. Who doesn't back up copies of voting files daily? But here we do get to see an example of the problem with events that might be low-probability, but exact a very high cost. To me, the cost is still way too high for the small benefit of convenience.

N.B.:Actually, it's not me that "told you so." I just pointed to what other, more learned people, had told you. But still, I think it's pretty interesting...

More on the consequences of regulation

Another quick pointer of a post here, to an interesting interview I read via Econopundit. Bruce Ames, the noted researcher whose work has been trumpeted by both sides of the environmentalist aisle (he appears to have been a bit vocal, and has now altered his message, but overall he strikes me as a fair scientist presenting his findings, rather than a sort of bell-ringer), gives Virginia Postrel a great interview about chemical bans, carcinogens, and more.

The part that inspired a post:

In 1990, he spoke out against California's Proposition 128, which would have banned many pesticides, and he has been highly critical of the ban on Alar. The best way to prevent cancer, Ames now believes, is to "eat your veggies." Any government action that makes fruits and vegetables more expensive ultimately causes cancer. In recent years, Ames has added a dollop of the economist's sense of trade-offs to the cancer researcher's zeal for prevention.

As I've mentioned in the past, I often tend to see regulation as not only an interference with economic processes, but as potentially harmful as well. While I can't speak to the science behind this one (the link between veggies and cancer rates), I do think the point is a valid one. Even if it's not certain that it's cancer-causing to eat less healthy, less "natural" foods (I still don't understand the term "organic" -- wouldn't "chemical free" work, and not invite the common comment that ALL food is basically organic?) it is definitely bad for your health.

If regulation limits the access lower-income people have to healthy food, then it simply continues the trend of having the incidence of obesity fall heavily on the poor. (An interesting paper here. And this is an overview presented at a conference.) Fast and pre-made food is often cheaper, and easier, so it's more heavily consumed by people with tighter budgets.

Banning chemicals on poorly founded beliefs could easily drive up the cost of production for farmers (as crop yields are lower, the approved chemicals could be more expensive, and so on) and ultimately the price of the goods at the market. Regulation on suspicion now could mean a certain impact on the frequency of obesity -- a health issue with side effects well-demonstrated across the nation (not to mention the long-term impact on health insurance costs and therefore premia).

And of course, the issue is of much more immediate concern for some. The UN's ban on DDT prevents the use of one of the (if not the) best tool to fight malaria based on science that is challenged by respected groups, and not just those of us who are skeptical of all regulation in general.

Iran Learning Lessons From China?

Interesting read from Global Insight on the potential reforms in Iran.

Some prominent conservative leaders not only support domestic economic reforms, but are also interested in increasing Iran’s economic ties with Europe. There are also indications that “pragmatic” conservatives are interested in reducing the tensions between Iran and the United States. To the extent that these initiatives will help improve economic conditions and boost living standards, they can help the Islamic regime enhance its domestic popularity. These developments give some merit to the economic thrust of Iran’s pursuit of the China model.

Is it possible to sustain an authoritarian regime with a liberal economy? Uncle Milty Friedman didn't think so. And I'm not sure China's really proving him wrong. That the political reforms are slower than the economic ones in China doesn't seem, to me, a refutation of the idea that economically free people won't ultimately start pushing hard for political freedoms as well; only that concentration on solidfying economic gains is often time-consuming and important enough that they take precedence. As people progress, and the ability to take some time away from working, I'd wager that we'll start seeing more pressure for reform in the political sphere in China (and, possibly, Iran).

Dividends are Gifts?

The summaries of New York Times articles on the front page are sometimes wildly off the mark, like the summary for this one:

UPDATE (7/21, 10:44 AM): It seems the Times web editors have had a change of heart:

Regarding T&B; Traffic and Bandwidth

The lack of new posts on T&B; has not stopped traffic from reaching absurd levels for us. My posts (1,2) on the Iraqi Dinar have been receiving ~1000 hits a day from search engines. This seemed to have no drawback until jobbers and speculators used one post as a forum. Before I knew it, more than 1700 comments (now archived elsewhere) were put on a single post. (Note that if you want to talk about the Iraqi Dinar, I suggest the Investors' Iraq Forum). At the climax, each download of the post was about ~1MB in bandwidth--requiring 2GB of bandwidth in 24 hours.

I point this out because I can now prove that spontaneous order exists by pointing to one that I own--one based on trust, reciprocity, and mutual assistance in the pursuit of speculative profit. What was the function of this order? The commenters exchanged information on how and from whom to buy Iraqi Dinar (on ebay and elsewhere), when and where exchange of currency could take place in the US, etc.; more importantly they tried to grasp the actual economic situation in Iraq by means of presenting and debating the little information available. I think they're wildly over-optimistic about the future exchange rate of the Dinar, and I've said so by not speculating on Dinar at all, even though the folks tell me I'm losing out on the opportunity to become a millionaire...

I made no sustained or difficult effort to support the spontaneous order--the people did it themselves--but I wound up creating a public good.

Then along came an intellectual entrepreneur who provided a superior product--a new, more sensible and sustainable format for comments. I still get the search engine hits, but I send the speculators to the competition, a real-world Macy's sending customers to Gimbals so they find exactly what they're looking for...