Observations from Halloween
This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. (Editor’s note: This is not a direct conversation with either the Young Statesman or the Baby Anarchist, but the timeliness and insight within are the reason for publishing)Questions Nobody Asks
Who will plan and build Halloween?
What about the free-rider problem of the neighbor who takes his kids trick-or-treating instead of staying home to give out candy?
Who will make sure that the maximum trick-or-treating age is enforced?
Do they have a license to distribute food?
What makes you think anyone will do it if it’s entirely voluntary?
Who is going to pay for all of this?
Safety in 2015
October 31st is the only day we think rightly about this being the safest time in the history of the world to raise children. They’re out there in the dark, wearing masks and brandishing weapons, walking the streets alone, taking candy from strangers.Halloween = Economists’ Christmas
Halloween is like Christmas for economists. It is a wild festival of human action, subjective value, and free trade. And while I am not an economist nor do I play one on TV, my children sell me their Halloween candy. We are capitalists, Baby. We won’t tax you. We won’t confiscate your hard-earned candy causing you to give up after ninety minutes. No! None of that. We will pay you cash money for your haul. That’s right! Stay out later, walk farther, and trick or treat longer than other children because your effort will be rewarded with cash. Mommy doesn’t want that stuff in the house so she will pay to get her hands on it and get it outta here.
What’s it worth to you? How much do you value that? What do you really want to keep? What could you do with that money? You selling by the piece, pound, type, or lot?
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