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: Grits for Breakfast

A market solution for graffiti costs?

I noticed this editorial out of Montreal, Canada titled "Make graffiti 'artists' pay for their hobby," which makes the predictable and uninteresting argument that the justice system should require graff writers convicted of the offense to pay for cleaning up the damage they caused. That's a pointless stance because police solve far less than 1% of graff incidents so most crime victims wouldn't benefit. Montreal reportedly spends a whopping $6 million per year (Canadian) cleaning up wall writing.But the headline made me think about the economics of the problem: Viewed in aggregate, graff on private property in economic jargon would be considered an "externality" -  a cost to a third party (not the seller or buyer of spray paint) that is not included in the price of the product...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).