Some hospitals refuse donations between strangers who met online partly over fears of under-the-table payments, but also on a hard-to-justify 'fairness' theory: it's acceptable to give to relatives/close friends or to give blindly to whoever is top of the list, but not to give to a specific stranger whose compelling story moved you—even though a directed donation moves everyone else up the list, making all parties better off.

causalpending

Speaker

Virginia Postrel

Evidence Quote

everybody else on the list moves up anyway. So, everybody is better off.

Source

Virginia Postrel on Style 11/27/2006EconTalk
Created: 6/17/2026, 10:31:39 AM

My Notes

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