27 March 2008  Water and Public Trust            Anonymous
said...  I've missed something and am confused. Generally, I get
your point that private property good, commons=tragedy. But then
there was the article about california wanting to take their
water rights back al la the romans and make it a public good,
and you seemed to like that except that it probably won't happen
because of entrenched interests.  So what am I not getting? Is
this an exception or not really a commons situation, or what?
I'm thinking maybe its like air and air pollution, no one really
has a title to the air, but govt can make rules so that it
doesn't get overrun by all users?  Sorry I am such a dolt on
economics.  David Zetland said...  You are right, but my point
with public trust is that the current "owners" are not those who
are maximizing value.  By taking back the water, the State could
reallocate it to better uses (in markets even), which does not
imply the tragedy of the commons :)