Peter Webster, Chapter 4, Question 6

I thought it was interesting when Wheelan talked about Gary Becker and his striped bass problem. He is a consumer of striped bass and the numbers of these fish were going down, so "the government imposed a limit on the total commercial catch of striped bass allowed every season." Becker realized the problem that comes with this; fisherman will go early in the season to catch all of the fish they can before the quota is up, but then they sell their fish in big supply and do not get as much money as they should from them. Later in the year consumers cannot even get striped bass because they are all gone at that point. Wheelan says, "Regulation can disrupt the movement of capital and labor, raise the cost of goods and services, inhibit innovation, and otherwise shackle the economy." So it is tough for the government to know how to handle situations where a supply is running low, but if they made a rule like they did, it completely ruins the market. Massachusetts eventually changed their system so that the quota was able to be filled individually and at any time throughout the season. This worked better for the market and for the fisherman.