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-How can I help you, Officer Louis?

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-Yeah, I was wondering, now that
Omni’s privatizing the police force,

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is it gonna turn all of us
into robots or just you?

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Also, is the Chief gonna
start asking for results

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cuz... criminals…
they kind of scare me.

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Usually, when I see
a crime in progress, I’m like,

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“Oh, a crime, man…
Oh, I can’t see anything…

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I better clean these glasses.”

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Then I put my glasses
back on and I’m like,

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“Oh, I see a pool of blood
but I don’t see no bad guys!”

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Like it never happened.

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-Excuse me. I have to go.

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-That’s cool. If you want to
hang out later and stuff -

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today’s T-shirt Tuesday,

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which is where me and the guys
tase people that we see in T-shirts

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It’s really fun… belipeli zip zap!

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[music playing]

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-Hi, I’m Andrew Heaton
and you’re watching EconPop -

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the show that patrols
the streets of popular culture,

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harassing pedestrians with
a baton of economics.

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In the 1984 sci-fi thriller RoboCop,

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after Officer Alex Murphy
is brutally gunned down

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in the line of duty by a gang
of ruthless criminals,

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he’s brought back to life
by a ruthless corporation

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with the not at all sinister name,
Omni Consumer Products.

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But there’s a catch.

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Officer Murphy,
once a loving family man,

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is now a walking, talking iPod,
programmed to fight crime,

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uphold order and protect
the public trust.

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All and all it’s an excellent film
about robots, explosions,

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more robots, public goods,
explosions and robots.

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In the film, the city of Detroit,

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plagued by violence and teetering
on the verge of financial ruin,

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outsources its underfunded
police department to Omni.

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During a corporate presentation,

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their new heavily armored
enforcement droid goes haywire

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and Gatling guns
a Junior Executive to death.

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It’s a pretty standard board meeting,

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but half an hour later we find out

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that company President Dick Jones
is also a greedy criminal.

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-What did you think? That you’re
an ordinary police officer?

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You are our product

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and we can’t very well have our
products turning against us, can we?

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-It begs the question,

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when should a private company
be employed to provide public goods?

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First, let’s define
what a public good is.

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In casual conversation, when
someone says “public good”

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they probably mean something
that benefits lots of people

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or a service paid for through taxes.

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However, in economics
a public good refers

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to something very specific,

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not just something
which benefits society.

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In economics, a public good
is something jointly consumed.

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That means it’s collectively used
by a large group of people at once.

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For example, we don’t use up national
security one person at a time.

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Everyone in the country benefits from

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the military protecting us
from Belgium.

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Think about the light
from street lamps

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or standing downwind
of my enticing cologne.

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Your enjoyment doesn’t detract
from someone else’s.

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It’s jointly consumed. Also, for some
reason I attract deer.

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A public good is also non-excludable.

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This means you can’t prevent
people from using it.

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You can exclude someone
from an amusement park

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by charging a ticket to get in

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or at least make me buy
a good ladder to hop the fence,

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but if you build a lighthouse

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to protect sailors from
smashing against rocks,

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ships are going to benefit
from that public good,

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regardless of how much
you yell at them not to.

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Trying to exclude them would be like

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trying to charge someone
admission to a firework show.

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Law enforcement is another
example of a public good.

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Everyone benefits from the police
keeping my activities in check.

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Police efforts are jointly
consumed and not excludable,

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unless the police chief is directed

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to ignore certain parts of
town for political reasons,

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or prioritizes one neighborhood
over another for lack of funding.

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In that case, it might
well make sense

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to hire your own private security.

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Mall cops, home surveillance
equipment and club bouncers

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are all examples of
private sector security.

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Thanks to me, William Shatner
employs a full-time bodyguard.

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How to pay for public goods
is an important issue.

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Everyone benefits
from public goods like

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clean air and scenic views
or crime deterrents.

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One line of thought is that if
something is really important,

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like fire departments or Scotch,
it can’t be left to the market.

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The idea is that if it’s unprofitable

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to maintain something vitally
important to society, like Scotch,

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then we have to rely on taxes

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and the government
to ensure it happens.

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Let’s go back to fire departments.
Imagine if they were corporations

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and you had to haggle with
the chief about premiums

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while your roof was on fire.
That sounds terrible.

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Right now most American firefighters
aren’t municipal employees.

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About 70% of the firefighters in
the United States are volunteers.

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Society is bigger
than both the government

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and for-profit corporations,
and a lot of the time,

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charities, churches
and even college sororities

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do an excellent job of
providing public goods.

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-What about this police thing?
What’s the problem?

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-Their union’s been bitching
ever since we took over.

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You know… the usual nonsense.
We’ll turn things around.

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-Hmmm...

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-In RoboCob, Detroit
outsourced its police force

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to a for-profit business,
which in the film has mixed results.

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On the one hand, they built

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an impressive cyborg patrolmen
to apprehend ne’er-do-wells.

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On the other hand, some of
their leadership suffers from

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“being evil” and “murdering people”.

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That sounds grisly
so let’s look at real-life Detroit.

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In 2013, real-life Detroit
filed for bankruptcy.

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It had been ranked the most violent
city in America 4 years running.

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At one point, the Detroit
Police Officers Association

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issued a warning to citizens
and out-of-towners

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that they should enter
the city at their own risk

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due to the grossly understaffed
and overworked police force.

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Keep in mind, this is real Detroit,
not the RoboCop version.

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Meanwhile, this year
Detroit started building

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a $137 million commuter train
spanning a little over 3 miles.

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That light rail neatly complements
the new hockey stadium -

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$285 million of which
will come from taxpayers

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who may or may not care about hockey

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but definitely care about being shot.

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Arguably, real Detroit’s government

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has failed at managing public goods.

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Public goods are a tough issue

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and there’s no black and white answer
on who provides them better.

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But at least with the private sector

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you can cancel
a bad company’s contract

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or quit donating to the Shriners
if they start murdering people.

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I would at least consider
living in Delta city,

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the ominous private metropolis
under construction in RoboCop.

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It probably has nicer bathrooms

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and I don’t care about hockey
stadiums because I’m not Canadian.

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Real Detroit is a mess

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so I’d rather take my chances
with the capitalist robots.

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[music playing]