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Each driver is causing themselves 10 and everybody else 990. Your analysis acts as if people make decisions as a group. "Each driver is paying their exact cost
by seizethecheese 12y ago
Each driver is causing themselves 10 and everybody else 990. Your analysis acts as if people make decisions as a group.
"Each driver is paying their exact cost." Yes, but on the margin each driver can only choose a small chunk of their cost. Seriously, have you looked at the enormous literature on this? One major annoyance on HN is the way CS people assume that they can independently grok the intricacies of any field.
- Dylan16807 12y agoI'm not trying to argue about the intricacies, I'm pointing out that your original example was terribly flawed. Assuming drivers actually consider their effect on congestion, they are willingly accepting the congestion of those coming after just as much as they accept the congestion they cause. (Most probably don't consider it but that's beside the point) Most importantly, the drivers are choosing to use the road every day even after seeing the final congestion every day. That's not a marginal decision. They are choosing to accept the final congestion. But even if you insist on a marginal explanation with actors incapable of anticipating future cars, the average driver is intentionally accepting and causing 500 with past cars, and unwittingly accepting and causing 500 with future cars. Versus your characterization of them only intentionally having 10 delay. Framing it as a new car 'paying a pittance more' is nonsense. The twentieth car either doesn't travel or attempts to pay 200 to travel. Comparing 190 to 200 is meaningless, because they never had the chance to travel at 190.