To an economist, the raging debate over Civil War Monuments is somewhat puzzling. The Civil War is over. Any discussion of the past is a discussion of a “sunk cost” and one of the basic tenets of economic thinking (or of rational thinking in general) is that “Sunk costs are irrelevant. ” They are past and done, and nothing can be done about things that have already happened. But the hysteria on both sides of the issue shows that rational thinking does not always prevail in policy debates.
So we seem to have a mostly unresolvable debate. Some want to maintain monuments to Southern Civil War heroes and others want them removed or destroyed, and both sides feel passionately about the subject.
My favorite is not a monument, but an actual Civil War artifact, the double-barreled cannon in front of the Athens, Georgia Courthouse. This cannon never worked as intended, but when I lived in Athens, I could feel superior to all those cities with only a single barreled cannon as a decoration.
A useful way of solving an impasse is to seek some middle ground. A natural solution (to an economist) is an economic solution. Here is a suggestion: each government entity that owns a Civil War monument should auction it off, and require that the buyers remove it.
If preservationists value the statue most highly, they will buy it and place it on a private park, or wherever they want (subject to any zoning laws, but also subject to normal protections of private property.) Those opposed to the statues may be mollified if the statues are no longer viewed as official government statements. If opponents value the statues most highly, they can bid for them, perhaps with a supplement from scrap metal dealers.
In either case, the losers in the auction will understand that they and their supporters did not place a high enough value on the monument to get their desired outcome. My guess is that some statues – perhaps those of General Lee – will be reserved, and statues of others will be melted down. But the beauty of an economic solution is that the market itself will determine what happens to each statue or artifact. Even though my family was not in the South during the Civil War, I might even be willing to contribute something to saving the double-barreled cannon.
Paul H. Rubin is Dobbs Professor of Economics at Emory University. He has also been a Professor at the University of Georgia, in Athens.
Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.
"Double-Barreled Cannon" by J. Stephen Conn is licensed under CC BY 2.0