Give Or Take - Private Or Public (1982)

The following is presented by the Joint Council on Economic Education and the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education. Wow. [music] Wow. Heat. Heat. All right, everybody. We don't have much time for this meeting, so if everybody will take a seat, we can get started. We have to make a very important decision today. According to the results of our poll, cleaning up the vacant lot and making it into a student park was the most popular class project idea by 2 to one. [applause] >> Has anyone talked to Mr. Hanley yet? He owns that lot, you know. >> Not yet, but I can't imagine why he wouldn't let us clean it up. That place is a mess. Besides, he's not using it. He gets his property fixed up for free, and we get a place to eat outside other than the front steps. >> I agree, Raphael, but I think Graeme has a point. Someone has to talk to Mr. Hanley before we announce a project to the school. I'll be happy to go this afternoon if someone else will come with me. >> Raphael and I'll go with you, Holly. If we don't get this project going right away, we won't have it ourselves before school's out. Okay, that ends the meeting for today. We'll meet tomorrow at the same time and we'll tell you the results of our meeting with Mr. Hanley. >> So, all right. I'll call Mr. Hanley, make an appointment with him, and we'll go see him after school. >> Yeah, we need to meet you up there after school. >> Yeah, that's great. Okay, >> see you later. >> I've owned that lot for years, and I've never been able to figure out what to do with it. So, I suppose if you kids are really willing to clean it up, you can use it for a student park. >> Oh, thank you, Mr. Hanley. >> You won't regret it, sir. We'll make it a place you can be proud of. >> We can even name it Hanley Park if you'd like. >> It won't be necessary. But you've got to keep the noise down. I don't want folks in the neighborhood to be bothered. >> We will. We will. Thank you, Mr. Hley. Come on you guys [music] smile. [cheering] Boy, was that a job and a half. >> Yep, it sure was worth it. No more eating lunch on the front steps. >> I just hope people will want to use it. [music] >> I know. I hate orange. >> Here's an orange. There you go. I don't believe it. This place is really getting popular. >> A lot of these people aren't even students. How'd they find out about this place? >> Word gets out. I guess there's Raphael. Let's go sit. >> Yeah. >> We're lucky to get a seat these days. What bothers me is that half the people here didn't do one thing to help us clean up this lot. We paid for all the cleanup stuff and we did all the work. >> Well, if we have to clean up after all these people, we'll never get the work done. Maybe we should put up a sign saying this area is for students only. >> I'm not sure we can. This is Mr. Hanley's lot and only he can exclude people. >> Yeah, well, if it gets any noisier, he may decide to exclude us along with everyone else. I don't think we can complain to him. >> What if we go to the city? Try to talk Mayor Blunt into buying the slot for Mr. Hanley, then the city could help us maintain it as a public park. The city would pay to clean the place up instead of us. >> Say, you young folks deserve a lot of congratulations. You've done a mightily fine job here. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Dollar. Nicholas, you can call me Nick Dollar. Yeah. I've been coming by here at lunchtime for a couple weeks now, and I got to say it, I'm impressed. This is the hottest little lunch spot in town. >> Yeah, we've noticed. >> Converting the lot into a park was our class project. Really? Well, it was a grand idea, but I got to say it. Um, I'm a little envious. >> Why, Mr. Doway? >> I wish I'd thought of it. Well, I got to get back to work. I just thought I'd come by. Give credit where credit was due. See you. >> He seemed like a nice man. >> Maybe. >> That's a tempting offer, Doway. I guess the the kids cleaning up that lot was to my advantage. You're the only offer I've had in years. >> Well, Mr. Hanley, you just name your price. As far as I'm concerned, setting up a Raleigh's trolley on that piece of property will be the best investment I ever make. The place was made for the fast food concession business. >> I don't know, Doway >> Gordon. I'm going to be providing jobs for some of those students. Rleyy's Trolleys makes cheap, nutritious food. And on top of that, I'm going to be taking over a tax burden on a vacant lot that you've been carrying for years. >> Those kids would really be disappointed. >> I know, but you think about it. Okay. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> In other words, you want the city to buy Mr. Hanley's lot and to maintain it as a public park. That's right, Mayor Blount. We fixed the lot up, but now it's become so popular, we're having a hard time keeping it clean. >> And we're also afraid that Mr. Hanley may shut us down if it starts getting too noisy. >> Buying that lot may not be too easy. That's why I've asked our city planner, Miss Bournick, here to join us. She's our expert on goods and services provided by government. >> Can the city buy our park, Miss Bortnik? A lot of people besides students are using it now, and we just don't think it's fair that we should do all the work of maintaining it. Well, shared consumption is one aspect of public goods. As long as one person's using it doesn't prevent someone else from using it, there is a case for government provision. But there's also another aspect of public goods, non-exclusion. Most public goods cannot exclude people who don't pay directly. >> If we put up a street light, for example, we can't use it to let some people see better than others. Once the light is up, anyone that passes by can see better. >> And one person seeing better doesn't make the light less useful to others who can see better, too. It's also shared consumption. >> You've got it. >> But what's this got to do with our park? If the city buys the park, we couldn't exclude people from using it. A private owner can exclude people, but the city can't. >> So, you can buy it. >> We'd have to make a study of the costs and benefits first. Then, there'd have to be a public hearing. Then, the city council and the taxpayer would have to vote on it. It's a long process. >> We'll have graduated by then. >> Not that long. But the city has limited tax revenue. buying their land would not only cost us the money that we paid to purchase it, but we would lose the property taxes we now collect from Mr. Hanley, and it would have to be maintained at public expense. And I'm just not sure how much support there is for this public park of yours. >> And we're already under a lot of pressure to repair the roads and get more police cars. >> And we're really in a tight spot as a result of the mosquito spraying last summer. We may have to do it again this year. Well, why don't you let people spray their own mosquitoes? If they want to get rid of them, they can pay for it directly. >> I'm afraid that's not practical, Graham. In order to be effective, every place has to be sprayed. If only some people spray, then the mosquitoes from the unsprayed areas would spread and infect all over. It's shared consumption and non-exclusion. Again, here we have both. There is no effective way to keep the mosquitoes away from only those people who are willing to pay. Once they're eliminated, everyone benefits whether they pay for it or not. >> Yes. >> 4:00 appointment is here, sir. >> All right. Thank you. >> Well, thank you for coming by. I'll give your proposal some thought and I'll let you know about it in a few days. >> We look forward to hearing this. Thank you. Goodbye. >> How about good luck? >> Bye. Bye. >> What are we going to do now? >> Well, nice seeing you again. >> Hello, Mr. Doway. Why, you must be Mayor Blount's 4:00 appointment. >> Sure am. I'm here to see about that little park [music] you kids built. I found that the zoning regulations make it okay for me to buy it. So, I'm going to put a little fast food trolley on there for all the students. What do you think of that? >> If you buy it and put up a Raleigh trolley, we can't eat our lunch there anymore. >> Oh, sure you can. If you buy it for me, folks who buy their lunch from my trolley can use the whole park. Of course, I'm going to have to exclude others. I mean, I'm running a private business here, not a public convenience. Besides, I can give you some jobs. Nice seeing you again. Let's go talk to Mr. [music] Hanley and see if we can convince him not to sell. >> Yeah, good idea. Let's go. >> I wish I could give you a definite answer, but I'm afraid it's not that simple. You see, if I decide to sell that lot, I might want to sell it to the highest bidder. Whether that's Nick Doway or the city or someone else entirely who can stay. >> This place is becoming a zoo. At least we can still use it. >> Not for long. >> Maybe we should get Miss Forick and Mayor Blount down here tomorrow. Show them how popular the park is with everyone, not just students. >> And show them how important it is this place be publicly owned. >> Well, I guess we'd better clean up cuz no one else will. >> All right, let's get at it. [music] >> I'LL PROVIDE YOU. [cheering] No greasy burgers unless you want them. [music] to eat. >> Oh yeah, you eat. >> See, Mr. Mayor, Miss Bick, people really care what happens to this park. Save our save our save our save our save our save our heart save our save our save our we fixed up this lot and we should be allowed to use it the citizens of this town want a public park share and share life that's what I say now you listen to me. Young man, you're talking about using other people's money. The city will lose tax revenue if they buy this lot. Well, as a taxpayer, why should my money be used to buy a park for you? Your taxes pay for roads that you don't drive on. >> Well, roads have external benefits. They are used to deliver food and other things. You can benefit from a road even if you don't use it. >> How do I benefit if you get a free park? Why not? We could still use this park if you buy your food at Ry's trolley. >> And we can if we don't. >> Easy for you to say. I'm looking for a job with Dolly. [cheering and screaming] >> Well, what should we do now? >> The content for Give and Take was developed with funds from a consortium of 45 state and provincial education agencies. Other funds were provided by these corporations and foundations. Additional support was provided by [music] the Office of Consumers Education, US Department of Education. This program was produced by Bradshaw Mloud and Associates Limited for the Alberta Communications Corporation [music] Educational Services under the supervision of AIT, the Agency for [music] Instructional Television.