WEBVTT NOTE 13. The Olive Bar, the State, and Rule Ambiguity 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.680 Free Association, Peace and Plenty, The Olive Bar, The State and Rural Ambiguity 2 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:17.000 There I stood with eight olive pits in my cheek, talking to the checkout lady at the 3 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.920 grocery store as she waved my half-pound container of antipasto over the scanner light. 4 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:27.980 All the while I hoped that she wouldn't notice or ask why I sounded like I had marbles in 5 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:35.860 Like many shoppers before and after, I had been standing at the olive bar sampling red, 6 00:00:35.860 --> 00:00:41.660 green and black olives, first the ones without the seeds, so that there would be no evidence 7 00:00:41.660 --> 00:00:46.340 of my deed, then the ones stuffed with cheese and garlic, and then finally the ones with 8 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:50.260 seeds because I couldn't resist the temptation. 9 00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:57.220 Sure, there is no sign on the bar that says, do not sample, nor is there a sign that says, 10 00:00:57.220 --> 00:01:01.860 For example, it's all kind of vague. 11 00:01:01.860 --> 00:01:07.740 The beautiful olives are displayed in the open under a small canopy in this self-service 12 00:01:07.740 --> 00:01:14.020 bar that only invites the customers to fill up plastic containers with food and pay based 13 00:01:14.020 --> 00:01:15.020 on weight. 14 00:01:15.020 --> 00:01:18.400 Was I stealing? 15 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.600 Was everyone? 16 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:25.180 In a sense, yes, the food I ate, I did not pay for. 17 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:29.960 So feeling a sense of guilt, I filled up a tub of olives and bought them, my tribute 18 00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:33.460 paid to expiate my grocery store sin. 19 00:01:33.460 --> 00:01:37.160 I would never do this in the produce section. 20 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:42.780 People don't usually sample the lettuce, carrots or even apples, please, that would be tacky 21 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:44.840 and wrong. 22 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:49.740 But an olive bar status is utterly ambiguous, everything looks immediately edible, almost 23 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:54.640 like these store managers are inviting you to sample. 24 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.920 Maybe they are, maybe they are not. 25 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:03.720 It later occurred to me that the ambiguity might be the whole point. 26 00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:08.480 People eat and then feel a sense of obligation and then buy. 27 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:12.660 Might this really be a marketing scheme? 28 00:02:12.660 --> 00:02:16.960 Later with a small team of researchers, I staked out the olive bar to see if this theory 29 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.080 holds up. 30 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:22.120 We pretended to be regular shoppers. 31 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:28.320 Over the course of an hour, we observed unscrupulous people walking by, quickly, stuffing a few 32 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:31.360 in their mouths without buying anything. 33 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:36.600 Other scrupulous people bought without sampling any. 34 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:43.520 After an hour of watching, our team only saw one other customer who replicated my own behavior. 35 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:49.300 The next day, our team observed several people who bought olives but did not sample. 36 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:54.920 One man who ate handfuls and walked away, and one person who sampled an olive and proceeded 37 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:59.220 to fill up a container and purchased. 38 00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:06.940 So while we saw plenty of sampling, only two people in two days both sampled and bought. 39 00:03:06.940 --> 00:03:10.740 Not ready to declare the theory a bust, it was time to interview people who watch this 40 00:03:10.740 --> 00:03:15.220 bar all the time, the baker and the wine salesman. 41 00:03:15.220 --> 00:03:19.260 The baker said people steal olives all the time, and he laughed about it. 42 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:25.140 I asked why he didn't put up a sign that forbids it, and he just laughed and shrugged. 43 00:03:25.140 --> 00:03:27.740 The wine guy was more forthcoming. 44 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:32.660 If people ask him, he freely suggests that they try some samples. 45 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:35.760 People who do sample also usually buy. 46 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:40.980 We asked if this was the point, after all, and he answered with a general theory of his 47 00:03:40.980 --> 00:03:41.980 own. 48 00:03:41.980 --> 00:03:49.820 A grocery store lives on the fence, neither claiming their food is their own, nor inviting 49 00:03:49.820 --> 00:03:52.700 people to freely sample what they want. 50 00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:58.420 We create zones of uncertainty and let people wander within them freely, letting people 51 00:03:58.420 --> 00:04:01.260 take their own path. 52 00:04:01.260 --> 00:04:06.140 The hope is that they will imagine the store's food as their own, and then make that come 53 00:04:06.140 --> 00:04:07.700 true. 54 00:04:07.700 --> 00:04:09.700 The olive bar is a case in point. 55 00:04:09.700 --> 00:04:14.660 It not only lives on the fence, by being so beautifully displayed, it suggests a home 56 00:04:14.660 --> 00:04:20.200 environment, and thus has spawned antipasto parties all over town. 57 00:04:20.200 --> 00:04:24.940 At this point, the baker became more open with his knowledge of olive bar sociology. 58 00:04:24.940 --> 00:04:29.260 He revealed that the olive bar is one of the most consistently profitable sectors of the 59 00:04:29.260 --> 00:04:30.260 store. 60 00:04:30.260 --> 00:04:36.340 It brings in $1450 per week, he said excitedly. 61 00:04:36.340 --> 00:04:39.540 Our team of researchers had the theory confirmed. 62 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:45.220 The buyer's profitability, which is a measure of how well it serves the public, is related 63 00:04:45.220 --> 00:04:50.100 to its shades of grey concerning the legitimacy of sampling from it. 64 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:55.880 We also found that one customer cited an authority for olive sampling, a guy on The Food Network 65 00:04:55.880 --> 00:04:58.420 actually recommends that people do this. 66 00:04:58.420 --> 00:05:04.460 Clearly, the rural ambiguity here is deliberate, but it serves a larger social goal of bringing 67 00:05:04.460 --> 00:05:06.500 us what we want. 68 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:12.420 Yes, there are those who take advantage, and there is some slippage, but the appearance 69 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:19.660 of generosity, combined with people's sense of fairness, ends up being quite profitable. 70 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:24.620 Contrast the shades of grey in the private sector with the same phenomenon in the public 71 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:26.620 sector. 72 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:33.900 There is a huge range of government-created rules that are notoriously unclear. 73 00:05:33.900 --> 00:05:35.340 Insider trading rules. 74 00:05:35.340 --> 00:05:39.860 All profits are based on inside knowledge in some sense. 75 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:40.860 Antitrust laws. 76 00:05:40.860 --> 00:05:44.020 How big is too big? 77 00:05:44.020 --> 00:05:45.020 Money laundering. 78 00:05:45.020 --> 00:05:50.740 Who is to say that a person intends to hide from the state or just exercise privacy? 79 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:52.300 Discrimination. 80 00:05:52.300 --> 00:05:55.820 Business actors are left to guess what will be considered evil and what will be considered 81 00:05:55.820 --> 00:05:58.120 Legitimate. 82 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:02.540 So it goes with a million regulations that live on the fence. 83 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:08.540 Regulations on accounting, environmental protection, tax shelters, and on and on. 84 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:14.520 The law depends not on the letter of the law, but on the whim of enforcers. 85 00:06:14.520 --> 00:06:18.240 When dealing with the state, we need certain rules, not gray areas. 86 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.900 The less discretion, the better. 87 00:06:20.900 --> 00:06:25.020 But the state doesn't like certainty. 88 00:06:25.020 --> 00:06:29.180 There is an obvious advantage to vagueness for the government, it keeps everyone living 89 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:31.000 in a state of fear. 90 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:36.340 The arbitrariness of it all makes us nervous and constantly aware of who or what is in 91 00:06:36.340 --> 00:06:37.340 charge. 92 00:06:37.340 --> 00:06:39.820 But to what end? 93 00:06:39.820 --> 00:06:45.780 It's not like the olive bar run by the grocery store where rule ambiguity is concocted with 94 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:48.960 the final goal of serving us. 95 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:54.220 When the state creates legal ambiguity, and it does so with deliberation, it is for the 96 00:06:54.220 --> 00:07:15.220 Freedom lovers often rally around the idea of the rule of law, but the private sector 97 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:18.860 where freedom thrives doesn't always give us that. 98 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:24.060 Sometimes the rule of conscience and guesswork is enough, provided it is administered by 99 00:07:24.060 --> 00:07:36.820 Let the private sector live on the fence, but the state should be required to live on 100 00:07:36.820 --> 00:07:39.420 one side or the other.