Very typical libertarian suggestion here from Cafe Hayek: Liberalise the bone marrow market. I think most folk regard the idea of a free market in body parts somewhat abhorrent, but that's not actually what gets me most.
It's that Don Boudreaux likens the market for bone marrow to that of journalists, showing the usual libertarian disregard for aspects of markets that make them less suitable to be left unrestrained. I find it incredible that he thinks this comparison reasonable.
Lets think about a few things to do with information in the bone marrow market, or other health-related markets. Are sellers of their body parts well informed about what selling these parts will do? Probably not. Would they understand the information, were someone to tell them about it? Likely not, too. Furthermore, what would the costs of a bad selection be for sellers? In the newspaper world, we just buy a different newspaper if we read some junk that we identify to be bogus/propaganda, and we've lost, say £1 tops. With health, it may be the effects of getting rid of that body part aren't yet known but are actually very bad. It may be you choose the wrong person to chop that bit off, and you die. The costs of a wrong choice are potentially massive. Hence at least one side of the market is not at all well informed, and given the other side (buyers of parts to then sell on to other needy folk) likely has much more information than the sellers of parts, there is a really big potential problem of adverse selection, where the buyer does not reveal the extent of the harm removing the part might do.
All in all, I think it's pretty damn clear that the market for trashy journalists is a very different place to markets for body parts, and I find it truly stunning that Boudreaux is unable to see this or unwilling to entertain it.
In this case, Christians should certainly not be libertarians (hence right wing)...
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