It seems one can scarcely find a pay toilet any more, yet their disappearance seems to fly in the face of economic rationality. Public toilets have to be maintained, and, in fact, their maintenance in terms of labor and cleaning supplies probably exceeds the cost of other non-productive assets. Providing this free service for their customers only serves to reduce businesses' profits, or else the cost is passed on indiscriminately to all their customers. It would be both more rational and more fair to re-institute a user-pays system. In fact, it might even be possible to turn public toilets into a modest profit center. Yet not only do I see no evidence of a revival of rationality in regard to public toilets, but, as economically irrational as it is, pay toilets have been disappearing for decades, and today are on the precipice of extinction.
In fact, if the pay toilet were to be revived, travelers--which we have more of than ever before in history--might well find there would be more and cleaner public toilets available for their use. Why are private businessmen operating in this economically irrational and money-losing fashion? Can modern economic theory explain this behavior? And do free public toilets encourage an entitlement mentality that expects something-for-nothing as the norm, undergirds support for the welfare state, and threatens the high level of general prosperity that economic rationalization has made possible? Is it just a coincidence that massive expansion of the welfare state has coincided with the disappearance of the pay toilet? (Of course it may work the other way around: perhaps the expansion and legitimization of the welfare state has contributed to the disappearance of the pay toilet, with all the adverse consequences that entails for businesses and consumers.) Save the American way of life: bring back the pay toilet! ~Alypius Skinner
