On Tue, 5 Dec 2000, Robin Hanson wrote:
> Fabio Rojas wrote:
> > > But I have often wondered if we could measure willingness to pay
> > > for various freedoms, perhaps by just directly asking people.
> >
> >... There are two kinds of free speech whose price we can measure:
> >freedom of one's own speech (I should be allowed to say what I want)
> >and the freedom of others speech (other people should say what they
> >want even if I don't like it).
> >
> >The evidence is that a lot of people are willing to pay quite
> >a bit for their own free speech. Witness the fact that many
> >are willing to die for the right to express their religion.
> >In the US, people are willing to pay quite a bit to pursue lawsuits
> >that allow them to proseletize (sp?) in public or quasi-public
> >places like parks, airports and malls.
> >
> >The evidence I think points to the fact that extremely few people
> >have positive prices for others free speech. The 1st amendment
> >was joke for most of this country's history.
>
> I agree that many people highly value their ability to express their
> religion. But how much they value a constitutional guarantee to
> such expression depends on what they think the chances are that the
> government would actually try to stop them.
Doesn't the _existence_ of the rule participate in changing the way the
people "think the chances are that the government would actually try to
stop them" ? I think there's a retroaction process there.
> The main thing that protects individuals right to expression is a
> tolerant society, not a constitutional rule. I think people
> correctly estimate that there is very little chance now of the
> government drastically restricting their religious speech. Thus
> I suspect willingness to pay for a constitutional rule protecting
> free speech is very low.
Ok, but can't a constitutional rule somehow encourage the existence of an
educational system that fosters tolerance, and thus lead to a more
tolerant society ? I agree that the rule is then useless, but is it wrong
to say that a good rule is one that aims at becoming useless ?
Yann
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