"Samuelson says I was wrong and he was right, and he froths at the mouth when people talk about the lighthouse example. He says Coase is wrong; he doesn't overcome the free rider problem. Who are the free riders? The foreign ships going past the British coast which do not call at a British port. Using Samuelson's approach, what do you do? Do you ask the foreign governments to give you a subsidy? Do you tax people in Britain because the foreign ships are getting help without paying for it? What do you do? My approach is to compare the alternatives. People like Samuelson like to set up a perfect world and say that the market does not bring us to this point and imply that the government should do something. They stop their analysis at that point."
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Academics from the United StatesJews from the United StatesEconomists from the United StatesNobel laureates in EconomicsPeople from Gary
Original Language: English
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Ronald Coase, in "Looking For Results" (1997)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Samuelson
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Paul Samuelson
Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 ā December 13, 2009) was an American economist. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
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