Did you know you can buy sriracha-flavored popcorn?
It's true.
Did you know that you can pay somebody to mourn at a funeral?
The kinds of things that you can buy on a market, they're almost limitless.
I mean, just today I heard that you can buy on Amazon a duck carcass press,
whatever that is.
But, should there be some kinds of limits?
Like, consider this, should be allowed to buy and sell kidneys?
What about sex?
Now, these are questions that perplex me as a philosopher.
But you know what, sitting in my office I thought was just not good enough.
I thought I would take those questions to the people.
I grabbed an easel, a poster board, a bunch of push pins,
I corralled my friends from Learn Liberty and they grabbed a camera crew,
and we went out to Red Square at Georgetown University.
And I started to ask people a bunch of questions.
Hey, can I bother you for just a second?
Hey, excuse me.
Yeah, come on over.
Hi, how are you?
Today, we're sort of gauging people's attitudes towards markets.
Can you just put a push pin indicating either whether you think that
things like kidneys, for example, should be bought and sold on a market?
Like should you be able to buy a kidney?
>> Yeah.
What about sex and prostitution, massage, and hugs?
I've got some pushpins here.
>> Okay. >> Lots of people were interested in
filling out this board, which is kind of surprise to me.
And soon enough, the board started to fill up with all these pushpins.
And I started to ask these students why they thought that kidneys, hugs, sex,
etc., should or should not be for sale.
What’s different about hugs and sex that makes it okay for
people to sell sex but not hugs?
>> Yeah, I think it’s the first level, so it’s basic need, like food.
>> That’s really interesting.
Okay, so in your mind, sex is a higher need.
>> No it’s a lower need.
[CROSSTALK] >> A lower need.
>> It’s like food.
>> It's like food so it's more basic.
>> Yeah.
>> So hugs, in your mind, are more intimate.
It's more of an expression of something like friendship and
a deep emotional commitment- >> Yeah, and
also love and those things, yeah.
>> Than sex. >> Yeah.
>> Why no for a market in sex?
>> I think that because of the culture of the current sex market, it would be so
difficult to change that into a market that wasn't demeaning towards women.
>> You think it's okay to have prostitution?
You think that's fine?
>> It's a very difficult issue, but when prostitution is legalized and
heavily regulated and taxed, it can be safer for all parties involved.
>> So kidneys is a no.
People should not be allowed to sell kidneys.
>> Probably. Yes. Oh, should be allowed.
>> Yeah, I think they should be allowed to.
I don't think that they should
be determined by market forces in the supply of them.
>> Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Okay, now here's the end result, and I have to tell you,
I was pretty shocked to see these outcomes.
Most people said yes to these questions, and I expected most people to say no.
So what I did, because of the small sample size,
is I decided to as my students that same question, and here's their results.
So I posted that on Facebook, and a bunch of my professor friends from
around the country, they asked their students the same question.
And here are the results.
So here's why it's surprising.
Most people who work on this topic, they all think that there need to be lots and
lots of limits to markets.
You shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell sex or kidneys and so on.
The students in my classes, and the random people that we
picked up at Georgetown University, They don't think that at all.
They think that lots of things should be for sale on a market.
So how about you and I have a conversation now?
Why don't you tell me what you think about markets in kidneys, markets in sex and
hugs and massage.
And I really want you to participate by dropping a comment here using
#keepaskingwhy on Twitter, and I'm not gonna give you my kidney in exchange for
awesome comments, but you know what we can do?
If you're in the Washington DC area, we'll send you sriracha flavored popcorn, right?
That's cool?
>> Yeah. >> Okay, good, good, good.
So we will send you sriracha flavored popcorn.
Drop a comment here.
#keepaskingwhy on Twitter, and let's do this.
Let's do it.
Hey fans.
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