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The Flying Toilet!


Razors Edge

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...seems so simple, so elegant, so needing of a video example. From the BBC(!):

If I install a toilet, I bear all the costs, while the benefits of the cleaner street are felt by everyone.
In economic parlance, that's a "positive externality" - and goods that have positive externalities tend to be bought at a slower pace than society, as a whole, would prefer.
The most striking example is the "flying toilet" system of Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya.
The flying toilet works like this: you defecate into a plastic bag, and then in the middle of the night, whirl the bag around your head and hurl it as far away as possible.
Replacing a flying toilet with a flushing toilet provides benefits to the toilet owner - but you can bet that the neighbours would appreciate it, too.
Contrast, say, the mobile phone. That also costs money, but its benefits accrue largely to me. That's one reason why, although the S-bend has been around for 10 times as long as the mobile phone, many more people already own a mobile phone than a flushing toilet.
If you want to buy a flushing toilet, it also helps if there's a system of sewers to plumb it into, and creating one is a major undertaking - financially and logistically.
 

Tom

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