Always Ask "As Compared to What?"
18 December 2006
Editor, The Boston Globe
Dear Editor:
A private company, SpotScout, offers an innovative way for drivers to use cell-phones to purchase from each other temporary access to public parking spaces ("What price parking?" December 18). But you're skeptical, arguing that "if the system worked as intended, SpotScout users would have an inside track on publicly-owned parking spaces."
What's the problem? The current system is much like musical chairs, and just as (un)fair. Public parking spaces now go to drivers lucky enough to be just behind spaces about to be vacated. Is this system more fair or less annoying than one in which drivers voluntarily exchange information with each other about which spaces will become available when and where?
And another thing: on what basis does Boston's Transportation Commissioner claim the authority to tell cell-phone users what sorts of information they can exchange?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Boston Globe
Dear Editor:
A private company, SpotScout, offers an innovative way for drivers to use cell-phones to purchase from each other temporary access to public parking spaces ("What price parking?" December 18). But you're skeptical, arguing that "if the system worked as intended, SpotScout users would have an inside track on publicly-owned parking spaces."
What's the problem? The current system is much like musical chairs, and just as (un)fair. Public parking spaces now go to drivers lucky enough to be just behind spaces about to be vacated. Is this system more fair or less annoying than one in which drivers voluntarily exchange information with each other about which spaces will become available when and where?
And another thing: on what basis does Boston's Transportation Commissioner claim the authority to tell cell-phone users what sorts of information they can exchange?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday August 28, 2007 at 11:01am