Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“What explains the hostility to money payments in what can loosely be described as social contexts? Consider for a particularly striking example, the number of men who would think it entirely proper to take a woman to an expensive restaurant in the hope of return benefits later in the evening but would never dream of offering her money for the same objective. For another example, consider adoption. Adoptive parents pay lawyers and adoption agencies to arrange the adoption and can pay for the medical costs of the mother — the current cost to adopt a domestic infant ranges from $20,000 to $45,000 (from one source). But it is illegal in the US for them buy the mother’s consent to their adopting her infant.” (07/08/25)