As a child, I used to dam the roads' gutterred runoff with piles of snow to create lakes in which my friends and I could float our boats. But the damned water continued to seek the deep and it always found a way around/through my dams.
Similarly, when prices can't work as a rationing instrument, people find ways around the problem.
Pat has a layer of cardboard beneath him, a wool blanket on top of him, two paperbacks found in a dumpster in his hand and the promise of $80 when he wakes up.
“I’m a lucky guy,” the 40-year-old homeless man said, from one of the most coveted spots in town these days.
Pat was first in line at the Fort Street passport office lineup yesterday. He claimed his spot at 1 p.m. the afternoon before, and slept out on the sidewalk with about 15 other homeless people who have put themselves to work holding space in line for those a little more fortunate.
When teaching material on price ceilings, I mention the array of non-price rationing systems that crop up when prices cannot adjust to clear the market - one of which is queuing. I mention that those willing to wait the longest are those who get the good. I also mention that it is not clear that the lucky ones will have lowest opportunity cost of waiting (the poor) because those with higher opportunity costs who also want the good can pay those with lower opportunity costs to wait in line for them. Life imitates econ.
What an odd way to redistribute income - but Dennis Moore might approve.
HT to CH
By the way, I love the drawings of Hayek at Cafe Hayek.