DISQUS

Cafe Hayek: The Sausage Factory

  • doinkicarus · 3 years ago

    Sounds familiar. Where I went to undergrad, at Central Michigan University, the local Chippewa Indian tribe had a large casino resort. Their dividends were to the tune of $52,000 per adult over 18, per year, with an allowance of $20,000 per minor child who resided with them. So yeah, about $140,000.00 per year, for a family of four.


    But most of the reservation, strangely enough, lived in absolute squalor and abject poverty. I never could understand that.

  • Ivan Kirigin · 3 years ago

    I'm not sure incentives for indiginous peoples to have more children are bad.


    Either way, I would prefer my mobsters have an interesting cultural background, rather than a bunch of NJ italians :)

  • William · 3 years ago

    Good old-fashioned rent-seeking. Isn't it nice when it's so easy to pick out?

  • thingsbetterwithkoch · 3 years ago

    Government for sale to the highest bidder. Is that Libertarianism? Where is your righteous indignation? Oh, that's right, if we didn't have government, there wouldn't be a problem. Or better yet, if I'm the government, everything will be ok. But it fits with Darwin economics. The Indians couldn't handle their money well and were parted with it. Right?

  • Timothy · 3 years ago

    Each member traded basically a year's worth of casino compensation to ensure that they kept exclusive rights. Even of those rights last only another few years it was more than worth the investment, even with a reasonable discount rate.


    And it's not like we're shocked government is for sale to the highest bidder: people respond to the incentives they have, government creates many perverse incentives. The individuals involved are still responsible for any violations of law or ethics, but it's hard to be surprised. One might say that with as large a central government as we have this sort of thing is inevitable.

  • John P. · 3 years ago

    thingsbetterwithkoch -- Your reference to "Darwin economics" has me wondering if you are the same person who previously posted as "faultolerant." If you are, I posted a question a few threads back that may have been overlooked: What job do you have that pays $250k per year, while you have yet to earn your first degree?

  • Antonis Roussos · 3 years ago

    Please see also this interesting analysis in the Becker-Posner blog.

    http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/index.html</b...>

  • Nancy · 1 year ago

    Great blog.Thanks for the info.