Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Capitalists are the true conservationists

John Stossel says what I have taught my economics students for years.

Terry Anderson of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) points out that governments have repeatedly failed to save animals by banning their sale. They've failed with the Colobus monkey in West Africa, the alligator in China and now with the tiger in Asia.

How do we save them? Here's an idea. Let's sell them! And eat them!

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2009/05/13/eat_the_tigers!

2 comments:

  1. Elephants in Africa, Mr. Kalahar, elephants in Africa.

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  2. This is a great example of the "tragedy of the commons." If we want something to be protected, it must be privately owned. Further, it is utterly and demonstrably impossible to prevent the sale of anything. As long as there is demand, someone will (and should) supply.

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