by The Coase theorem and the legitimacy of property rights From the perspective of the Coase theorem, it becomes ‘natural’ to consider the task of legislators as mainly deciding for which part externality rights have the greatest value and then distribute the rights accordingly. Sounds ‘natural’ to mainstream economists, but maybe one should think twice … There are very good reasons for not making a god of efficiency … Keeping old people in old people’s homes incurs considerable expense for society as a whole. Less expense would be incurred by building a few gas chambers. As building and running gas chambes is cheaper than building and running old people’s homes, then the most efficient way of dealing with old, unproductive people is to kill them. Only a
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The Coase theorem and the legitimacy of property rights
From the perspective of the Coase theorem, it becomes ‘natural’ to consider the task of legislators as mainly deciding for which part externality rights have the greatest value and then distribute the rights accordingly. Sounds ‘natural’ to mainstream economists, but maybe one should think twice …
There are very good reasons for not making a god of efficiency … Keeping old people in old people’s homes incurs considerable expense for society as a whole. Less expense would be incurred by building a few gas chambers. As building and running gas chambes is cheaper than building and running old people’s homes, then the most efficient way of dealing with old, unproductive people is to kill them. Only a madman … would reduce the question of how to ‘take care of the old’ to that of discovering the most efficient (and final) solution. Efficiency should not dictate our morals … Efficiency is unlikely to be an acceptable basis for answering normative questions. Hence, it is unlikely to establish the legitimacy of property rights.