Tragedy of the commons

Alright, so it's not really hard to see that this article has to do with economics, but the comments are still pretty amazing. One problem with command-and-control regulations is that people always find a way around them so you end up with a hodgepodge of seemingly strange rules (aka, current fishing regulations). If you limit the number of boats that can fish, people will just use bigger boats.
In this case, if you limit what people can do with city-supplied water, people will just dig more wells and get their "own" water. The problem, which is eventually identified by the 8th or 9th comment, is that water shouldn't be free. If it is, there is no incentive to save some for your neighbor. Digging a well and paying for the electricity to pump the water does not cover the cost of the water itself.

Even the Onion

So it's not exactly "news", but this article from the Onion just goes to show that even the world of satire follows some basic economic principles. In this case, we've got scarcity:

"The maximum 24 hours of possible work time offered by our plane of existence is simply not enough to provide a living wage in the current economic climate,"

And tradeoffs

"It's hard, but what other option do I have?" Vernacini said. "Having every atom in my body split and retranslated into a different form of matter just to make a few extra bucks isn't exactly my idea of fun, but my family needs to eat."

Is it really that hard to figure out

People often say economics is too full of technobabble to be accessible to a broader audience. To a large extent I agree with this and I'm trying to do my part to fix this. But at some point I draw the line. Consider this CNN.com story about rising gas prices, particularly the part that says

A person making $9 an hour needs to work nearly seven hours just to pay for 15 gallons at $4 a gallon, according to CNN.com's gas calculator.

Do we really need a special calculator for that?

Welcome

I've finally made the dive into the blogosphere, though I'm not quite sure how this will evolve. My initial intent is to expand the low tech blog I maintain outside my office...