I have a friend, Andrew, who lives on the first floor of an apartment building on JPA. One thing about Andrew is that he loves his music. He really likes to feel like he's at trin at all times of the day. It doesn't matter if it's Tuesday at 1pm or Sunday at 2am, He's blasting his music. As you can imagine, Andrew consumption of music has a significant negative externality for neighboring apartment and significant. So much so that Andrew received a message from his landlord on Monday that his neighbors had the right to file a police report if he kept it up.
While most people would have simply turned down their music, Andrew took a different approach. He research the Charlottesville City noice ordinance to determine the exact decible limit at various times of the day. He then purchased a tool to measure the decibels of his speaker at max volume. AS it turns out, his music plays 5 decibels below the legal limit. Much like the farm with the smelly hogs, Andrew's not liable for the negative externalities he's causing. So clearly, Andrew wont be turning his music down anytime soon. So, I suppose the real question now is: How much do his neighbors value their peace and quiet? And are they willing to compensate him to lower his consumption to the level of the social marginal benefit?
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