OMG, Someone Actually Mentioned Price in an Article in Our Paper About Avoiding Water Shortages
Kudos to Jeff Gibbs for finally bringing to the pages of the Arizona Republic what strikes me as the most economically obvious, but least mentioned, solution to future water shortages: Price.
herdgadfly:
So if we trade water on the Chicago commodity exchange and public utilities charge customers based upon the market, new science and new techniques will come into being to balance demand and price.
Brilliant!
April 28, 2015, 6:30 pmjon49:
For the first time in my life I am paying a water bill. (Our last place was a well). We were really surprised to see how much water we use and how incredibly cheap it is. It's not even a concern it is so cheap.
April 28, 2015, 8:02 pmJonCB:
Posting this as it's the most recent related topic. Scott Alexander of Slate Star Codex just posted on the California water use thing with an interesting (sorta-)meta-analysis. He's asking for actual economists to double check his work. His bottom line is "Marginal Revolution and pretty much every other economist in the country are talking about ... if we had a free market on water all of our problems would be solved. It looks to me like that’s probably right." Thought it might interest you.
May 11, 2015, 8:44 pm