The law of unintended consequences doesn't only afflict government actions.
Craigslist springs up to facilitate low cost transactions between individuals: good!
The market for used furniture booms, allowing people to furnish their houses more nicely/cheaply, while giving a little extra cash to those parting with unwanted furnishings: good!
The boom in used furnitures spreads bedbugs, leading to a quasi-epidemic in some areas: eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Now I'm afraid to buy any used furniture at all, other than from an antique dealer. (Which means, I'm not buying any used furniture). As far as I can tell, the only real way to get rid of a bedbug infestation is to throw out practically everything you own. It's not worth saving a couple of hundred dollars on a futon if it means I might have to throw out thousands of dollars worth of other furniture.
When markets fail, we're supposed to recommend government intervention, but damned if I can think of one that would solve this problem. I think we're stuck with Caveat Emptor.
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"Some people think the increasing use of craigslist and ebay to sell used furniture is part of the reason there's a bedbug outbreak in the first place."
Hardly the syllogism you posited. It seems possible but there may be many other causes.
damned if I can think of one that would solve this problem.
Require that all furniture transactions pass through a licensed furniture retailer with properly approved fumigation procedures. Criminalized unlicensed sales. Create a certification program with a government-approved seal to be affixed to properly-treated mattresses.
Can't think of any ways government intervention could help. You should head over to bedbugger.com . Plenty of ideas on it over there.
Also, check out bedbugregistry.com if you travel at all.
And there's plenty of speculation on why bedbugs are on the rise. I blame Bush. Once Obama finishes his first hundred days, I'll consider blaming him.
When markets fail, we're supposed to recommend government intervention, but damned if I can think of one that would solve this problem.
This implies that government intervention into market failures is actually intended to solve the root problem. I would submit that this is rarely the actual goal of those recommending intervention.
Also, how is this a market failure? You don't want to risk bugs, you don't buy used furniture. Problem solved. It's not like the market isn't providing alternatives to buying used furniture. In fact, there may be an opportunity for a wise entrepreneur in buying, sanitizing, and reselling used furniture with a no-bedbug guarantee.
Megan, when you say shit like this, it reminds me what an absolute crap example of a libertarian you are.
Oooh oooh oooh! I know! I know!
Tuck a few billion in the stimulus packages for furniture irradiators--pump enough x-rays through it, and your bedbug problem becomes a deadbug problem.
Of course, private industry could do this more slowly, as a few inudstrial-cleaning concerns buy massive mattress/couch irradiators...
Not sure if you're a sufferer, but throwing out everything will NOT solve the problem unless you throw out everything AND move. They can hide in your apartment's floorboards, especially in New York City, where old woodwork has gaps all over.
Your best bet is to keep all your furniture, put on a bedbug-proof mattress cover, and make your landlord pay for REPEATED professional exterminations. (Bedbug eggs can't be killed, so you have to keep killing them after they hatch, but before they lay more eggs.)
Not to mention that if they're coming in from a neighbor's apartment, your problem won't end until theirs does too.
I think Megan's a Tory wet, myself. But on the bedbug question: high heat will kill them, so one thing to do is put them on the driveway under a black tarp in the summer. If there's a big market for fumigation services, Goodwill will figure out how to offer to fumigate your purchases for a fee, as they at least used to do for their used furniture in Calif, where there were government regulations requiring it.
In Calif, also, there are thriving businesses which tent houses and heat them to 140 degrees, to kill termites. It's a good idea to clear your candles out first.
What market failure? Every time the market fails to give someone what they want, they scream "market failure". Seriously, that is some mighty tired bullshit.
I bought some nice, sturdy red oak Mennonite-constructed furniture my first year out of college, and I fully expect it to last another 90 years.
Megan, nobody gets sarcasm... besides, who would buy a used piece of bedding? You know what the previous owners have been doing on that?
uh, yeah, here's the brain bleach...
Government could really do everyone a service in this case by requiring marketplaces, online or otherwise, that sell used furniture to post notifications that the furniture may contain bed bugs.
While it would cost something to enforce this, it would not be extremely costly, and it would save a lot of people a lot of trouble. For example, if Craigslist posted this as an issue just as they post that all car sales where delivery is promised are fraudulent, it would save people a lot of trouble.
It would hardly solve the problem, but it should help a good deal. I don't know if it fits within your libertarian ideals though.
....The boom in used furnitures spreads bedbugs, leading to a quasi-epidemic in some areas: eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!....
Or the epidemic comes from people switching from roach spray to roach traps. The roach spray would kill the occasional bedbug. Since you aren't spraying for roaches anymore the bedbugs are able to breed.
This is why people chuckle when you label yourself a libertarian. When statements like these come from self-described libertarians, it really damages the brand.
...either that, or I just fell into the sarchasm.
Actually, it appears to have to do with a recent change in extermination methods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug
Bedbugs were originally brought to the United States by early colonists from Europe. Bedbugs thrive in places with high occupancy, such as hotels. Bedbugs were believed to be altogether eradicated 50 years ago in the United States and elsewhere with the widespread use of DDT. One recent theory about bedbug reappearance involves potential geographic epicentres. Investigators have found three apparent United States epicentres at poultry facilities in Arkansas, Texas and Delaware. It was determined that workers in these facilities were the main spreaders of these bedbugs, unknowingly carrying them to their places of residence and elsewhere after leaving work.[16] Bedbug populations in the United States have increased by 500 percent in the past few years.[citation needed] The cause of this resurgence is still uncertain, but most believe it is related to increased international travel and the use of new pest-control methods that do not affect bedbugs.[17] In the last few years, the use of baits rather than insecticide sprays is believed to have contributed to the increase.[citation needed] With the advent of cockroach bait in the early 1990's, the use of residual insecticides and other liquid sprays were drastically reduced. As it turned out, pest control professionals had not realized that during their monthly treatments for cockroaches (particularly the German cockroach, which infests hotels as bedbugs do) they had helped in the control of bedbugs. This process may have started with the use of DDT but it is no coincidence that the dramatic rise in bedbug activity came approximately 10 or so years after professionals stopped spraying for cockroach activity.
Who in their right mind would purchase used bedding? Good God that's disgusting. I'd rather sleep on the floor.
This is why people chuckle when you label yourself a libertarian. When statements like these come from self-described libertarians, it really damages the brand.
Posted by thomasblair | February 11, 2009 6:27 PM
*snark* What brand? There has to be a living brand to damange it. Libertarianism is deader then a doornail my friend. In fact one could argue it never existed except in the minds of men.
I knew this would happen when we took the lead out of mattresses. Stupid Democrats.
"Who in their right mind would purchase used bedding? Good God that's disgusting. I'd rather sleep on the floor."
It sounds disgusting, but we all sleep in hotels from time to time. They don't put brand new sheets and towels in hotel rooms.
My son just purchased a 1999 BMW M3 for the payments; far below it's "value."
It's a nice car, he's very happy with it, and the deal he got.
I try not to think about him driving home from work (he's now making the blades for jet engines, both for planes and for steam turbines) at 12:30 each night.
Pocket bedbug test kit, everybody's happy (except of course the bedbugs).
It sounds disgusting, but we all sleep in hotels from time to time. They don't put brand new sheets and towels in hotel rooms...
Well, yeah, but hopefully doing so doesn't make you run the risk of importing vermin into your own home (but let's face it, hotel bedding is pretty icky). Also, you can at least be hopeful that staying with a trusted hotel brands will offer some degree of cleanliness. What the hell assurances can you get on Craigslist?
Even very very poor people can probably afford a new air mattress. Chacun a son gout and all that...
EVERY piece of bedding is used bedding after the first night, you prima donas. In a free market, every problem is an opportunity. Build a better bug trap and the latte-fueled cosmotarians will beat a path to your door.
Jasper - if only that were true... it only takes one person who has bedbugs in their own home staying in a hotel to spread the bedbug love, and once they're there, they're nigh impossible to get rid of. It doesn't matter how nice or reputable the hotel is. Better to check the bedbug registry these days, especially if you're staying in NYC.
Bed bugs are spreading in this way. I've even seen people admitting on online forums that they knowingly sold or gave away their stuff which was exposed. It's highly unethical, but it happens.
And then add in all the people who have bed bugs but have no idea because they have not yet seen one and do not react allergically to bed bug bites. A sizeable percentage of people fall into this category.
I would not attribute bed bugs' recurrence to the used furniture trade alone, but it certainly plays a role, whether it's a mattress on the curb, a sofa found via craigslist, or even a new item returned and sold as a clearance item.
Here is an example bed bugs via Craigslist story:
http://bedbugger.com/2008/08/21/another-craigslist-bed-bug-story/
Do bedbugs lurk in things like tables and bookcases or is it only upholstered furniture? While buying used couches and beds ishes me out, I wouldn't hesitate to buy other furniture. It never occurred to me that they might be infested with bugs.
Apparently, they are also very fond of wood.
Not to mention that loss of classified ads to Craigslist has been one of the biggest hits to the newspaper industry.
I bought a pair of very nice vintage upholstered chairs from an antiques dealer.
Then I battled a flea outbreak for about a year and a half (I have no pets, it's just me in the house, so they used me as their blood meal source).
I don't think higher price necessarily means vermin-free.
I will never buy any used upholstered furniture again. Hardwood is a different matter, but it's still wise to inspect the crevices first.
@Barbara -- Bed bugs can certainly be found in wooden (or Ikea-type wood-veneer) items as well as mattresses and upholstered furniture.
@ricki -- People have gotten bed bugs from antique stores also.
If I were shopping at an antique store, I would inspect items carefully, and consider that bed bugs hide easily in hidden gaps. They are extremely thin and are designed to want to sneak into cracks and stay there.
I would ask the antique store if and how they make sure items are bed bug free. If they poo-poo the idea that their stock might come in with bed bugs that the owner did not know about, I would steer clear.
The truth is, unless they are gassing items in a tented structure with Vikane gas, or heating it for four hours to 120dF (again, in a closed space), they cannot promise with any certainty that there are no bed bugs in the stuff. And even then, someone off the street comes in to the shop, sits down, plops down their bag and boom! Bed bugs. I am not saying it happens everywhere everyday, but it does happen. Beware.
And don't get me started on delivery trucks, where the process of delivery can infest perfectly good items. They are routinely used to carry new mattresses, they may also cart away old ones. If the delivery company are contractors, their trucks may also be used as moving trucks.
I moved into an apartment and soon discovered a bedbug infestation. We suppressed it for about 6 months with a $450 professional treatment at our expense; the landlord said it wasn't their responsibility. They blames our "urine-soaked mattresses."
When the bugs came came back, we discovered that our downstairs neighbor had them, but wasn't allergic. He saw them all the time, but they didn't bother him. Thus he had no plans to invest $450...
We moved, put powder on the mattresses, and couches, and never saw another bedbug. The reservoir wasn't the beds. They were in the walls.
Of course, moving wasn't cheap.
SwissD said: Megan, nobody gets sarcasm... besides, who would buy a used piece of bedding? You know what the previous owners have been doing on that?
Do you know what fish do in water?
(Answer: Everything!)
And you drink that! At least you put new sheets on a mattress.