http://www.economics21.org/commentary/health-care-chaos-and-challenge-chickens-manhattan
Health Care, Chaos, and the Challenge of Chickens in Manhattan
John O’Leary and William D. Eggers | 02/24/2010
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The paradox is that chaos creates order, while control can result in chaos. In an effort to control outcomes, free exchange is curtailed and the essential ordering signals of price and profit are lost—leading to misallocation of resources and outcomes that nobody likes.
Few of us appreciate how mundane chaos really is and how we are essentially surrounded by it.
Consider: Who is in charge of getting the right number of chickens to Manhattan every day? After all, few chickens live there, but a lot of chickens get eaten there. The typical Manhattanite downs about sixty pounds of chicken a year, in every imaginable form, from chicken chow mein to chicken nuggets, from organic chicken to those little cubes that float in your can of chicken soup. Untold thousands of people participate in providing for Manhattan’s ever-changing chicken needs, from truck drivers to restaurant owners, from grocery store managers to Arkansas chicken farmers. Who is in charge? Who makes sure that New York City winds up with the right amount of the right kind of chicken?
The answer is: No one. The chaos of the uncontrolled buying and selling of the market produces an orderly pattern of exchanges that coordinates the activities of independent yet interdependent participants. The result, without any central planning, is an adaptable and ever-changing arrangement that generally meets the needs of Manhattan’s chicken eating public. The government provides certain oversight and context for the market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture watches over chicken farms and the city’s Board of Health licenses and inspects restaurants. Chickens are hauled over public roads and contract disputes between chicken farmers and truckers are resolved in public courts. But when it comes to the essence of the chicken delivery system—how much chicken, of what kind, at what price—it is the invisible workings of supply and demand that align the productive activities of a loose network of thousands of people (and companies) in making sure New Yorkers get their chicken potpie, chicken vindaloo, and extra-spicy buffalo chicken wings.
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Interesting, no central authority using force to “enforce an orderly market”. No “market failures”. Just lots of folks seeking their own best interests as they see them. That’s called “freedom”. If the gooferment didn’t “inspect” chickens — ignore for the moment that this is a farce because they don’t do any “inspecting” — just look into what they really do! — do you think the marketplace wouldn’t figure out how to make chickens safe? Kosher, Halal, WalMart, supermarket guaranties, Consumers Reports or Underwriters’ Laboratory, consumers or buyers talking to each other.
And don’t even get me started on the “roads” argument. No roads in Disney World?
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