Emergent Order

Everything that I observe seems to be under the control of law, social order, or institutional conventions. Everything that is, except the price system. I will grant you that biological forces are unregulated, but human interactions seemed to be governed.

The forces that determine the price of gas aggregate information from millions of sources into a market. Sometimes you don't always get what you want as Joel Waldfogel wrote in his book, The Tyranny of the market. But you don't worry that the gas station will be out of gas when you want to fill up either.

Last night I noticed while on my way to the symphony, that cars parked so that they could get home quickly after the Mesiah. The spaces left between cars was waste and exerted a negative externality on those late concert goers. The market created order out of disorder, but there was still waste. Still I don't think a parking czar would have helped much. This czar might not have had all of the information necessary to plan the parking efficiently.

I believe Frederic Hayek opined that order would emerge. I am wondering if a self-correcting economy is the self ordering market that Hayek meant.