The South River

The past few months I’ve gotten more and more into fishing, specifically fly fishing. I went fishing this past Saturday in Waynesboro on the South River, which is really more like a creek, but it’s stocked with brown trout in early October by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. It’s a great public spot with easy access. On the surface, it seems to be a pure public good, but that’s not quite the case. To fish the South River you must have a Freshwater Fishing license with an additional Resident Trout Fishing (which comes out to about $55). Although no one asked me for my fishing license on Saturday, I knew that a Virginia Conservation Police officer could have checked that I had one. So, the river is excludable. It’s also rivalrous– any more than 40 fishers on this stretch of river and I wouldn’t be able to cast without hitting someone. Paul Samuelson would have a hard time defining the South River as either a public or private good.

James Buchanan and his equation, on the other hand, allow goods to be defined on a continuum, from pure private goods to pure public goods with his inclusion of "N." Because of the exclusive and rivalrous nature of fishing the South River, it certainly is not a pure public good. But it’s not a purely private good either. I paid my $55 to be able to fish, and even with 5 other fishers on the river was peaceful and fun, so it’s not completely exclusive of others or completely rivalrous. The South River falls somewhere on this spectrum, definitely more of a public good than a private one, but still fairly ambiguous. Buchanan’s way of classifying goods, especially in light of my recent fishing trip, makes much more sense to me than Samuelson’s. I do wonder though, if, without the VDGIF, the private market would stock trout streams for me to fish. Maybe, but for now I’ll be thankful that it’s provided through the State of Virginia for a small fee.