Date: |
Fri Mar 31 17:18:27 2006 |
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From: |
J. (J.) |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
Sam,
Although closely related to collective consumption
goods, external effects are not their essence. It is their
collective nature that precludes exclusion and thus
creates the problem for property rights. I note that you
have not denied the possible existence of pure collective
consumption goods, although perhaps you wish to.
With regard to your example, no insult intended to
your pregnant wife, but her negative reaction is not one
of eating the food that she sees the other person eating.
Clearly there is a negative externality from her seeing
the other person eating that food. But their eating it
fully excluded her from eating it. It is still a pure
private good, despite the possibility that there may be
consumption externalities associated with it.
A possible counterexample along such lines might
be the Ammanita Muscaria psychedelic mushroom that
is (or was) consumed by Siberian (and other) tribes,
especially by their shamen. The active agent is passed
through the urine, although not fully, and traditionally up to
four persons would ingest the agent from a single dose
by drinking each other's urine in turn. Obviously there is/was
a social hierarchy element involved in the order of ingestion.
It is clear that at the time Samuelson wrote, there was
a lack of clarity about a number of matters, including the
relationship between externalities, collective consumption
goods, and important issues related to property rights. I
note that the very first thread I was involved with on this list
was one in which the origin of "externalities" was discussed.
The bottom line appears that clarification of that term did not
appear until at least the late 1950s, if not later, certainly after
Samuelson wrote his original 1954 paper in any case.
Barkley Rosser
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