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.
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.
Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
