Chapter dzǺ: Economics and Principles ȂȄȂhave to turn away some customers, who will then buy from his noncomply-
ing rivals. In earning profits and winning control over resources, then, the
less public-spirited businessmen will prevail over the more public-spirited.
By practicing restraint in driving, public-spirited car owners will leave
more gasoline available, and at a lower price than otherwise, to drivers
less public-spirited than themselves. Eventually such effects become evi-
dent, further supporting the perverse idea that morality is for suckers and
dupes.
In contrast with “voluntary” controls, legally enacted penalties against
specifically defined violations do tend to make compliance serve the indi-
vidual’s self-interest. Ļe contrast weakens, though, if supposedly com-
pulsory controls, by their nature, are easy to evade, so that any compli-
ance must in effect be voluntary. Ļe contrast also weakens if the law
makes crimes out of actions not otherwise morally wrong, or if the con-
trols become so extensive and complicated that the individual can hardly
know just what is expected of him.
My criticism of voluntary economic controls does not imply oppo-
sition to voluntarism in all aspects of life. Quite the contrary: precisely
because voluntarism is indispensable, we must beware of misusing and
subverting it. Far from denying that there are valid distinctions between
right and wrong, I am stressing the alternatives to detailed governmental
compulsion and prohibition. Many types of wrongdoing can be discour-
aged, if at all, only in an informal, de-centralized way. Discouragement
consists in part of an atmosphere in which wrongdoers bear certain costs,
including, perhaps, that of being regarded with appropriate revulsion.
Although dealing with relatively trivial cases, a memorableNewsweek
column by Stewart Alsop (ȀȈȆǿ, p.Ȁǿǿ) contains valuable insights. “[T]he
man who makes a justified fuss,” said Alsop, “does a public service.”ȈAlsop
cited examples of indifference of clerks at railroad ticket counters and
hotel desks as long queues formed, the surliness of waiters, the dishon-
oring of confirmed air reservations. Professor David Klein of Michigan
State University practices rendering the kind of public service that Alsop
praised. When a Montreal hotel tried to dishonor his confirmed reserva-
tion, Klein gave the desk clerk three minutes to find him a room; other-
wise, he would change to his pajamas in the lobby and go to sleep on a
sofa. Klein got his room. Klein also makes it his practice to bill business
ȈAlsop deplored “the sheepish docility of most American customers.” “In the public
interest, the pricks should be kicked against at every opportunity.”