:: walterindenver ::

:: Saturday, August 10, 2002 ::

Introducing the Next Governor of the Great State of Colorado
Gubernatorial candidate Ralph Shnelvar (L) responds to an earlier post on this site concerning water rights. Here are a few edited portions:

In regards to www.colorado.blogspot.com, I read it all and found all of it
interesting.

So far so good.

What I found most interesting was your reporting on Coase's theorem. Your
analysis was incisive and correct, but, unfortunately, missed the point.

Uh-oh.

I have spoken to various experts in the field and I always ask them to
consider how to make this current collection of water rights into a market
system for water.
As yet I have come up empty handed.

No surprise.

Let's go back to your correct analysis that once the (water) rights are
legally well defined and transaction costs are low, the economic system will
allocate water in the most efficient manner. As you can well imagine, right
now there are perverse incentives (e.g. "use it or lose it") for those with
water rights to waste unbelievable amounts of water.

Go on.

Our first problem is that we could initially allocate those rights in a
totally inequitable manner. Perhaps, we allocate all water rights to Walter
Schlomer. Walter Schlomer is now richer than Bill Gates.
Congratulations, Walter, I always knew you'd make it.

Cool! But that's no problem. Assuming I'm a rational actor in the market, everyone will get the water they need, provided that they are the best users of that water.

This reductio ad absurdum result indicates that we first need to equitably
convert the current system of water rights into their cash equivalent.
Damned if I know how to do that.

No, as in my original post, there's no need for the governor or any government body to convert anything, save bad laws. Your job, should you chose to accept it, (cue Mission Impossible theme music) is to identify laws that have the following effects:
-Prevent water owners from selling their water
-Prevent water users from buying water
-Allow local water boards or communities or anyone else to seize water rights through eminent domain or similar processes
-Prevent water from being transported via pipelines or other methods
-Give the State or other government ownership of the water

And then crush those laws into oblivion.

Let's think about this: every person with usufructuary rights in this state
has exercised a right to a certain amount of water each year. Let's say
that we agree that Farmer X's ditch rights average out to an acre-foot of
water per year.
That's the same as 250,253,900 teaspoons of water. Really. I counted it
last night. My tomato garden is now a ruined mess.
Some BIG questions:
(1) What is the fair market value for that acre foot of water? I don't know
and I don't know how to determine it. For argument's sake, let's call it
$1,000.
(2) The State pays $1,000 per year to Farmer X for the water rights he has
given up. Where does the State get that $1,000? Clearly, from selling that
water to anyone ... including Farmer X.
(3) Water now runs through your property. Do you pay the water owner
upstream of you for the water? What if you don't want to pay?

Now I KNOW you know there's no need for the Governor to determine the market value of water! Once you get the state out of the equation the rest of your problems start to disappear.

The net result of the government taking the actions described above is that the consumers who need the water most urgently (read; 'are willing to pay the most') will wind up with the water. Most likely, some people, such as developers wanting to build in arid regions, will not get the water they want.

I'm not naive. Politically, we likely can't get there from here. As a Libertarian Governor, you'll see plenty of similar dilemmas.

:: Walter 5:59 PM [+] ::
...

Oops
I can't even imagine the emotions going through the minds of these families.

:: Walter 10:16 PM [+] ::
...

1,000
Hits to this little site, as of some time last night. Thanks mom!

:: Walter 7:44 AM [+] ::
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Muslims and Lutherans
LILEKS finds an absolutely sick site, a forum for Muslim teens, where they describe how they'd kill Jews, given the chance. He remembers his Midwestern Lutheran upbringing, and how unthinkable such hateful thoughts are to the average American Christian. Love the insider Lutheran humor.
Have I mentioned that Lileks may be the best writer in the blogosphere?
Go there and follow the links provided.
Update
Little Green Footballs notices the same website and its sickness. Read through the 265+ comments if you have the time.

:: Walter 9:07 AM [+] ::
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More Neighbors
I had never seen this lovely blog until I noticed an incoming link. Actually, you get two for one there, a husband and wife team. Coloradoans, it seems. We'll have to have another one of those blogger bash thingies soon, so my wife and I can meet all the locally based bloggers. Again.

:: Walter 5:55 PM [+] ::
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ILTE of the Day
That's Idiotic Letter To the Editor for those of you keeping score at home.
Today's winner is Jim Silva, who hails from Denver. He thinks the recent E. Coli scare is the occasion to push a vegan lifestyle.

How many illnesses and deaths will it take before American consumers consign meat consumption to the garbage heap of lifestyle history, along with smoking and drug addiction?

My guess is a whole lot more. As for smoking and drug addiction, it seems that the desire for intoxication is a biological urge, like sex. Of course addiction is bad, but if you're trying to get rid of meat and drugs you might as well go for the trifecta and try to ban sex while your at it.
Jim, please run for public office. Make speeches in places where I can throw smelly rotten things at you. Please.

:: Walter 7:48 PM [+] ::
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Socialism won 40 years ago
John Derbyshire notes on National Review online:

Practically all of the Socialist Party platform on which Norman Thomas ran in 1928 has been implemented. Thomas himself noticed this as far back as 1962, exulting that: "The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly."

If you dislike socialism, you're about 40 years late in abandoning the Republican party.
Mr. Derbyshire is completely wrong about other things, however:

Pop culture is filth. It is now completely degenerate. Why do you never hear anyone humming a current pop song any more? Because none of them is hummable, or even worth bothering to remember.

That's only on the radio. Good, or even brilliant pop music is out there. You have only to look for it. I'm humming it every day.
(Link via Libertarian Samizdata)

:: Walter 7:10 PM [+] ::
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