Today is the day someone special can get a new job, at the expense of fishermen (and fisherwomen?) and consumers. Read on for more…

Thanks to a recent court ruling, Sesame Street’s Count von Count, the vampire with the obsessive-compulsive need to “count things”, could get a new gig.

On Friday, January 29, US District Court Judge Joseph Laplante denied a request by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel, and a fishing interest nonprofit called Northeast Fishery Sector 13, to stop a US Department of Commerce/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration mandate that northeastern fishermen pay for special “at-sea monitors” to count the number and kinds of fish they catch.

The monitors have been mandated by the feds since 1985, but until now, lucky taxpayers paid the salaries of the bureaucrats. Thanks to Judge Laplante and the feds, the fishermen will be forced to pay $800 per day for these “services” to which they can’t say “no”.

$800 per day – expenses that will put many long-time fishermen out of business.

But Washington isn’t listening, because its vampire-puppets who love to count will do very well.

“One! One fisherman out of work! Two! Two fishermen out of work! Three–!!” (Cue lightning and thunder.)

“Fishing is my passion and its how I’ve made a living, but right now, I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors,” said Mr. Goethel upon bringing suit on December 10, 2015.

Evidently, Judge Laplante disagrees, and he says he’s constrained by the original law, which prohibited federal suits over the imposition, even while its federal promoters told the public that the law was a “good thing” and would help maintain the fish population.

The feds have messed with fisherman since the days of FDR, but, starting in 1976, the US government really ramped things up. Since the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of that year, DC has established “unquestionable” limits and regulations, flown spy satellites, imposed needless costs, and placed “fish monitors” on boats; and now a lifetime-appointed judge has said it’s perfectly fine to charge for the “monitor” that the fishermen never wanted in the first place.

“Our sector will be effectively shut down if these fishermen are forced to pay, themselves, for the cost of at-sea monitors,” said Northeast Fishery Sector 13 Manager John Haran. The results will be crushed businesses, higher costs for fish, and decreased competition. Only large fishing companies with wide margins will survive.

All of which forces observers to learn the political-economic lessons of this debacle, and search for ways to avoid future situations like it.

One of the big lessons comes in “spheres of control”… The larger the area of control, the less efficient it will be, the more it will lack local information, the more likely it will be to harm lots of people when bad decisions are made, and the harder it will be to escape.

The other is in the term “Tragedy of the Commons”. Economists use that term to describe any resource/property that is “commonly held”, i.e., for which there are no defined ownership rights. If “everyone owns” something, then no one has an incentive to husband the resources for the long term, to make sure the resource is renewed or used in a way that allows for conservation and long-term profit. Instead, everyone rushes into or onto the “commonly held” sphere and tries to take everything he or she can get before the other person does. A great example of this can be seen in fisheries where there are no property rights managed by the people who do the work. The government claims control, and, unless the government imposes more and more top-down controls, the fisheries will be over-fished. Viewers and readers of “The Hunger Games” might have noticed that the author, Susan Collins, created two metaphors to the “Tragedy of the Commons” in her story. The first is the artifice of the “Games” themselves: death battles in which the winner’s “District” will receive all the spoils of food, medicine, heat, etc., that the government offers. She also created a smaller version of the “Tragedy…” in the “Cornucopia Scene”. Here, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, is warned by “Game” vet Haymitch to stay away from the cornucopia when she enters the arena. At the cornucopia, the government lays out supplies and weapons, and Haymitch explains that all the competitors in the “Games” rush to it to get everything they can before the other guy does. It always results in fighting and death.

Which is what governments/states always do: they pit us against each other. We already live in the “Hunger Games”.

On the flipside, a positive alternative to the top-down, bureaucratic government prescription that politicians adore is called… Let’s see… They didn’t really cover this on Sesame Street. It’s called… Oh yeah! “Private property”! Recognition of property rights facilitates free trade, resource allocation, and the best management of supply and demand. Through real property rights, owners have incentives to manage their claims. Decreases in resources are reflected in higher prices, and incentivize cost-cutting, productivity, and, if the resource becomes more dear, switches to other items that are relatively cheaper.

At one point in history, whales were killed for their oil, which was used to fuel lamps all over the world. But as the number of whales declined, the cost of whale oil increased, and as it increased, this higher price incentivized people to find alternatives. The result? Kerosene refinement became economically feasible, that industry grew, became efficient, and the whales were saved. The market is a beautiful thing if allowed to operate.

In fact, there are so many examples of free markets and property rights protecting the environment and helping maintain natural resources, the Count might never be able to stop counting them.

Perhaps that’s a better line of endeavor if he ever leaves Sesame Street. Get into free market economics, Count. Help establish real property rights for fishery homesteading, and get off the public dole.

We could use a brain like Count von Count’s doing good work, not following court orders and bankrupting fishermen on the decks of their ships.