The Other Tragedy of the Commons
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You all know the primary Tragedy of the Commons. When property is owned publicly, or its use is subsidized such that the price to use it is artificially low or even zero, it will be overused. If no one owns the meadow and if everyone may freely graze their cows on it, then the meadow will be overgrazed to everyone's detriment.
But there is another Tragedy of the Commons: When property is managed publicly, it will often be underused. The politician or bureaucrat responsible for managing the commons may decide, rationally or irrationally, that sheep should be kept off the commons, or that a new and improved variety of grass should not be planted on it, or that the meadow should be off limits on Sundays, or that gay weddings can't be performed on it, etc.
Exhibit B:
So, in this instance of the "secondary" Tragedy of the Commons, "not free, but unlimited" has been replaced, not with "free and unlimited" but rather with "free, but limited." And arbitrarily limited at that. That's not a per se improvement; it's merely exchanging one constraint for another -- at the whim of a low-level bureaucrat.
An airport may well be a natural monopoly that is best owned publicly. The same cannot be said for wi-fi (which, since it is perfectly excludable, is never a public good). Even wi-fi at a public airport is not a public good. To avoid the secondary Tragedy of the Commons, the Denver airport should stick to its knitting and leave the wi-fi business to bona fide businesses.
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Incidentally, here is Exhibit A, back from 2006.
But there is another Tragedy of the Commons: When property is managed publicly, it will often be underused. The politician or bureaucrat responsible for managing the commons may decide, rationally or irrationally, that sheep should be kept off the commons, or that a new and improved variety of grass should not be planted on it, or that the meadow should be off limits on Sundays, or that gay weddings can't be performed on it, etc.
Exhibit B:
Want to browse Vanity Fair magazine on the Denver airport's free Wi-Fi system? Sorry. You'll have to buy it at the newsstand, because DIA's Internet filter blocks Vanity Fair as "provocative."Of course, one bureaucrat's "prudent judgment" is another bureaucrat's "too prudent" and yet another's "not prudent enough." Such is always the case with hopelessly vague and subjective terms such as "prudent" (or, worse, "provocative").
You can't get to the popular gossip column perezhilton.com on DIA's Wi-Fi signal, either. Or the hipster-geek favorite boingboing.net. Or the Sports Illustrated swimsuit photos, even though the magazine's bare-breasted cover shot is on prominent display at airport stores, right next to Penthouse and Hustler.
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[Airport bureaucrats] say they're using prudent judgment in a public, family-friendly atmosphere.
So, in this instance of the "secondary" Tragedy of the Commons, "not free, but unlimited" has been replaced, not with "free and unlimited" but rather with "free, but limited." And arbitrarily limited at that. That's not a per se improvement; it's merely exchanging one constraint for another -- at the whim of a low-level bureaucrat.
An airport may well be a natural monopoly that is best owned publicly. The same cannot be said for wi-fi (which, since it is perfectly excludable, is never a public good). Even wi-fi at a public airport is not a public good. To avoid the secondary Tragedy of the Commons, the Denver airport should stick to its knitting and leave the wi-fi business to bona fide businesses.
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Incidentally, here is Exhibit A, back from 2006.
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Posted by Kip on
5 March 2008
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