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Not at all. Market based doesn't mean profit-maximizing from the supply side. "Correct" is just short-hand for getting what we as a society want out of our wate

Not at all. Market based doesn't mean profit-maximizing from the supply side. "Correct" is just short-hand for getting what we as a society want out of our water distribution system. Like, we don't want to use so much water that a river runs dry and kills all the fish in it, even if it means selling a few million dollars more worth of water.

r00fus 10y ago
> Market based doesn't mean profit-maximizing from the supply side. Some context [1] on what "profit maximization" we're offering to say Nestle... "the permit that Nestle uses to operate its water pipeline in the San Bernardino national forest costs just $524 (£357) a year.". Sounds like a racket to me... [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36161580 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36161580
thaumasiotes 10y ago
A market-based solution means the quantity of water sold is determined by the market. There's no other way to know what the "correct" quantity is; that is the entire purpose of the market. What you're describing is a centrally-planned solution, not a market one. I lost all my respect for carbon tax advocates after realizing that their definition of the appropriate tax was "high enough that people stop doing things I don't like". That's not a market system. It will be a market system if you set a price on the thing you don't like, and people respond to that price. Tweaking your price until you get the outcome you originally wanted is a way to claim the rhetoric of "market policies" without any of the substance.
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  Uhm, not really? Like, I'd describe the system that auctions off frequency spectrum as "market-based", even though the quantity of spectrum sold is fixed. The frequency spectrum auction is a market designed and created by a central planner, sure, but it's still a market. If you wanted to be really clever, you could separate out the environmental concerns as a separate entity and give them a budget to buy and leave unused the water rights that best support their mission. That seems a bit weird to me, though - I'd rather just figure out how much water we can distribute safely, and then auction off the right to receive that distribution at fair market prices.

r00fus 10y ago

> Market based doesn't mean profit-maximizing from the supply side. Some context [1] on what "profit maximization" we're offering to say Nestle... "the permit that Nestle uses to operate its water pipeline in the San Bernardino national forest costs just $524 (£357) a year.". Sounds like a racket to me... [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36161580 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36161580

thaumasiotes 10y ago

A market-based solution means the quantity of water sold is determined by the market. There's no other way to know what the "correct" quantity is; that is the entire purpose of the market. What you're describing is a centrally-planned solution, not a market one. I lost all my respect for carbon tax advocates after realizing that their definition of the appropriate tax was "high enough that people stop doing things I don't like". That's not a market system. It will be a market system if you set a price on the thing you don't like, and people respond to that price. Tweaking your price until you get the outcome you originally wanted is a way to claim the rhetoric of "market policies" without any of the substance.

ThrustVectoring 10y ago
Uhm, not really? Like, I'd describe the system that auctions off frequency spectrum as "market-based", even though the quantity of spectrum sold is fixed. The frequency spectrum auction is a market designed and created by a central planner, sure, but it's still a market. If you wanted to be really clever, you could separate out the environmental concerns as a separate entity and give them a budget to buy and leave unused the water rights that best support their mission. That seems a bit weird to me, though - I'd rather just figure out how much water we can distribute safely, and then auction off the right to receive that distribution at fair market prices.