On Tue, 5 Dec 2000, Robin Hanson wrote:
> >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.
>
> 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.
Is that a fair question? Aren't you just saying that people won't
pay for a good that is already provided by others?
Maybe the real question is: would you rather live in a tolerant
society that has no legal gurantee of free speech or an intolerant
society with a legal gurantee? And how much would you pay to move
from the one that you don't like to the one that you like?
By that measure, I don't know what the answer is. A lot of people
migrated to the US in the 19th century (intolerant, legal gurantee).
-fabio
