LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Prices are Bounties” by Maxwell Tabarrok


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A man has just robbed a train. A Rock Island Rail car was held up in the desert of North Texas on route from Chicago carrying dozens of passengers and tens of thousands of dollars in a Wells Fargo express compartment. The men were slain and the women and children are kidnapped.

You’re the sheriff in charge of the investigation. In a case like this, tried and true procedure is to put a bounty on the man's head. That gets everyone interested in looking and bringing this man to justice. An everyday 2-bit robber might get a bounty of a thousand or ten, but this is an emergency. You set the bounty at $200,000, dead or alive.

This bandit ain’t getting away easy.

With two major hurricanes in the last couple of weeks, “price gouging” is in the news. Whether it's $10 for a gallon [...]

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First published:

October 12th, 2024

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pghgLk9jYWtpcnsDG/prices-are-bounties

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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