Fabio wrote:
>... colleges ... attracted donations ... because they offered
>a place where abolitionists could argue their case freely. ...
>Question: Could we use charitable donations to colleges and other
>cultural organizations be used a measure of how much people
>value various kinds of speech?
This example sounds more like the price of advertising.
But I have often wondered if we could measure willingness to pay
for various freedoms, perhaps by just directly asking people.
I doubt if most people would be willing to pay more than $100
per year for their own first amendment right to free speech.
Probably $1/year is more the median answer for how much a person
is willing to pay to have a constitutional protection against
the government banning that person's speech.
Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
