Have you ever heard something on the news and thought to yourself, “There ought to be a law!”? I’ve become a bit dismayed that this phrase has become an acceptable form of showing distaste with something (imagine if we outlawed everything a few individuals found distasteful!). Instead, I wish we had a norm to say, “What’s the market solution?” Okay, that’s probably not a cool enough phrase to become every day use, but I hope you get my point.

For instance, I heard  a quick blurb on the news this morning about the TV Networks taking the FCC to court over fines for inappropriate material. Regardless of where you stand on the censorship issue, let’s me just focus in on one sentiment I’ve heard come through strongly: parents need decent TV stations so they don’t have to worry about their kids watching TV. What happens if we apply the what’s-the-market-solution strategy instead of the there-ought-to-be-a-law thinking? I’m guessing if we were all sitting around having a cup of coffee, we could think of dozens of other ways to serve parents who want decent programming for their kids to watch.

My biggest problem with there-ought-to-be-a-law thinking is it implies that a few people who make laws have all the answers and know what is right. If we can switch to what’s-the-market-solution thinking, it implies we (as in normal, everyday people) have say in what happens. Also, it enables us to tap into vast networks of ideas and knowledge because we’d have thousands (millions?) of entrepreneurs thinking about solutions. More than likely, we’d have multiple solutions from which to choose.

I’d like for you to leave me some comments with recent events that had you (or someone you know) saying, “There ought to be a law!” Let’s see if we can take some of these things and ask “What’s the market solution?”

Ann’s Note: I’m not saying we should not have laws. Instead, I’m asking that we reevaluate our urge to default to making a law when we don’t like something instead of finding a market solution. As always, feel free to challenge all of these ideas in the comments or send me an email.

Beneficial Rules of Just Conduct, economic freedom, Free Markets, hypothetical, knowledge, Norms