The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives PDF
Preview The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives
0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page i The Gridlock Economy 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page ii This page intentionally left blank 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page iii The Gridlock Economy How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives Michael Heller A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP NEW YORK 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page iv Copyright © 2008 by Michael Heller Published by Basic Books A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016–8810. Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page v For Debora and Ellie 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page vi This page intentionally left blank 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page vii Contents List of Figures ix Preface xiii 1 The Tragedy of the Anticommons 1 2 Welcome to the Lexicon 23 3 Where Are the Cures? 49 4 You Can’t Hear Me Now 79 5 Block Parties, Share Choppers, and BANANA Republics 107 6 Empty Moscow Storefronts 143 7 The World Is Mine Oyster 165 8 A Solutions Tool Kit 187 Acknowledgments 199 Notes 203 Index 247 vii 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/6/08 3:39 PM Page viii This page intentionally left blank 0465029167-Heller:Layout 1 5/13/08 12:34 PM Page ix List of Figures 1.1 Ruined castles on ninety miles of the Rhine— Bonn to Bingen. 3 1.2 My Quaker Oats Klondike Big Inch deed. 7 1.3 A public domain image of Dr. King. 10 1.4 The standard solution to commons tragedy. 18 1.5 Revealing the hidden half of the ownership spectrum. 18 2.1 Imagining the dawn of air travel. 28 2.2 An illustration from the Wright brothers’ U.S. Patent No. 821,393. 31 2.3 Ordinary use as the end point. 33 2.4 The trilogy of ownership. 33 2.5 The familiar split in ownership. 34 2.6 The new spectrum of use. 35 2.7 Goldilocks’ quest for the optimum. 35 2.8 An ownership puzzle. 37 2.9 The full spectrum of ownership. 37 ix
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