There are plenty of people (alas, some economists even) who truly believe that centralization is a better way to run a mousetrap. Whether it is nationalized health care, nationalized education, or anything else, it seems that some have an unending faith that a single entity will somehow take care of things. Hayek argued that there was so much pertinent information to internalize, organize, and ultimately act upon that a centralized government/firm/bureaucracy would be unable to provide the same service as the private market.

Now to my point - I blog from Le Chai - galerie du vin, the best little-known wine shop in the Coastal Empire. Located in the Starland District of Savannah, my kid brother pushes the juice to all who value old world wine. Why am I in Savannah? Let's see if I have what it takes to be a novelist:

Thursday, 6:30 pm CDT, the phone rings.

Richard B: Craig, what are you doing?

Craig D: Richard, how's it going? I am making mashed potatoes.

Richard B: Dude, I have an extra ticket to the Georgia-Florida game [in Jacksonville, FL on Saturday afternoon]. Get your a** to Savannah and you can go.

Craig D: I don't know, what's the price of a ticket? [wife gets on the DSL and checks out AA.com]. Oh man, it's $638 and I have to fly back on Monday. Things don't look good at the moment.

Richard B: Expedia has a flight on ATA for $479.

Craig D: [Hem and Haw] How long can you give me before you need to contact someone else?

Richard B: About an hour or so.

Craig D: Let me see what I can do, I will call you back.

I hang up and calmly sit down to eat dinner with the family, after all I had a good pork roast cooked up and wasn't gonna let that go to waste. After dinner, I get on the horn to American Airlines. Over the course of the next forty minutes and about six phone calls between AA, Savannah, and Charlotte, I have flight/game plan finalized.

Go DAWGS!! My first GA-FL game ever, and it wouldn't have happened if life was centralized. Thank goodness for decentralization - my consumer surplus is huge ( $100 plus some frequent flyer miles for the plane ticket and face value of the game ticket). What are the chances that a centralized airline industry would be so accommodating to get me half way across the continent and back in three days in order to see a football game.