Wednesday, November 04, 2009
If you don't use price to ration, someone else may
An unemployed Gatineau man has been doing a modest but steady business in the past week by standing in line at flu clinics for people who can’t line up themselves.From Canada, hat tip to Tyler Cowen. I saw kids do this for World Series tickets for scalpers in Los Angeles many years ago (sorry, Angel and Dogder fans!) sometimes getting in line before midnight for a sale the following morning. The Canadian health system tried to switch from tickets to wristbands to restrict reselling, but Johnny's found a workaround for that.
And he says the city’s security measures haven’t slowed him down.
For $15 an hour, the man who calls himself Johnny Z lines up for hours to get the ticket, or more recently the wristband, that entitles the wearer to a flu shot.
The person who hires him takes his wristband and comes to the clinic for a shot later in the day.
All scarce goods get rationed somehow. Question: If you were Ontario police, would you arrest Johnny? Why or why not?
Labels: economics, health care
