Comments on: Gasoline and Time http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html Dispatches from a Small Business Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:39:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Noumenon http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html/comment-page-1#comment-2679 Noumenon Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:13:22 +0000 http://coyote-blog.com/wordpress/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html#comment-2679 <p>Why do people argue against laws based on economics? If it makes economic sense to do something, people will be doing it already. You wouldn't need a law! You need laws in cases where the behavior markets naturally encourage is not an ideal behavior -- child labor, for example, or freeloading. Or in this case, consuming resources as though their price reflected their true scarcity and not just whatever the Saudis want the price to be.</p> <p>Also, your time is a finite resource, but "time" will go on forever in future generations. Whereas your access to oil is virtually unlimited, but for future generations it's quite finite.</p> Why do people argue against laws based on economics? If it makes economic sense to do something, people will be doing it already. You wouldn’t need a law! You need laws in cases where the behavior markets naturally encourage is not an ideal behavior — child labor, for example, or freeloading. Or in this case, consuming resources as though their price reflected their true scarcity and not just whatever the Saudis want the price to be.

Also, your time is a finite resource, but “time” will go on forever in future generations. Whereas your access to oil is virtually unlimited, but for future generations it’s quite finite.

]]> By: Max Schwing http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html/comment-page-1#comment-2678 Max Schwing Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:19:12 +0000 http://coyote-blog.com/wordpress/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html#comment-2678 <p>I think many of those Easterners have copied it from European socialist countries like Germany and France, which are incidentially places that are rather crowded compared to the many lone hours on US high ways.</p> <p>It is acceptable to make speed-limits lower when you live in a country where the distance between work and home is only a 10-15 min drive, which is usual for Germany. <br /> The average distance between villages is something around 5-10 miles (depending on your location). So I think the more crowded a place is, the more people are likely to accept lower speed-limits (because there they can really be seen as a sur-plus trade-off).</p> I think many of those Easterners have copied it from European socialist countries like Germany and France, which are incidentially places that are rather crowded compared to the many lone hours on US high ways.

It is acceptable to make speed-limits lower when you live in a country where the distance between work and home is only a 10-15 min drive, which is usual for Germany.
The average distance between villages is something around 5-10 miles (depending on your location). So I think the more crowded a place is, the more people are likely to accept lower speed-limits (because there they can really be seen as a sur-plus trade-off).

]]> By: Dave http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html/comment-page-1#comment-2677 Dave Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:38:15 +0000 http://coyote-blog.com/wordpress/2006/06/gasoline_and_ti.html#comment-2677 <p>What I would love an economist to do is to explain to me why, despite all available evidence to the contrary, economics insists that man is a rational consumer.</p> What I would love an economist to do is to explain to me why, despite all available evidence to the contrary, economics insists that man is a rational consumer.

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