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From: josh@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (J Storrs Hall)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory,net.legal
Subject: Re: Seatbelts for passengers (micromotives & macrobehavior)
Message-ID: <3426@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 20:28:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3426
Posted: Mon Aug 26 20:28:12 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 20:30:29 EDT
References: <535@brl-tgr.ARPA> <987@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <160@gargoyle.UUCP>
Reply-To: josh@topaz.UUCP (J Storrs Hall)
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 21
Xref: watmath net.politics.theory:987 net.legal:2181

In article <160@gargoyle.UUCP> carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) writes:
> ... A law
>can help change a collective behavior pattern in which all the
>individual agents act rationally, yet the total result is far from
>optimal. ...  Such patterns are common in interactions among people (they are
>often called Prisoner's Dilemma or Free Rider situations), and in
>general, individual rationality does not lead to a collectively
>optimal situation.  The free market is a special case: the market
>"works" (in the sense it may be said to work) because each agent
>enters the marketplace *voluntarily*.  But this is not the general
>case with social interactions.
>Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes

Richard is teetering dangerously close to a valuable insight.
Namely, that there are some systems in which the rational behavior
of all the participants "sums" to the good of all (as in the market)
but that many systems work the opposite way.  In particular, political
systems work the opposite way:  it is impossible for everybody to
get rich by stealing from everybody else.

--JoSH