Sara Silverman wants to end world hunger (and get those disturbing images off her 48inch plasma TV). Her solution: sell the Vatican and use the proceeds to feed the world.
This is good, but only second best. The buyer who values the Vatican the most is in fact its current occupant. So selling the Vatican would lower its value. (It is true that the new owner knows he can sell it back to the Pope and takes this into account when deciding how much to offer. However, this adds needless transaction costs, plus the Pope will have bargaining power in the resale which would not be internalized by the buyer.)
A better idea is to give the Vatican directly to the poor and allow then to charge the Pope rent. Subject to this small ammendment, I wholly endorse the following (although the bit about the Holocaust may require the consent of more than just Ms Silverman and me.)
Cheap Talk 
12 comments
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October 15, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Anonymous
it’s disturbing you thought this worth blogging about.
October 15, 2009 at 4:01 pm
peter
global poverty is no issue to be mocking, videos like this draw attention away from the public on how to actually solve development issues.
October 15, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Adam
Wouldn’t the Vatican paying rent be equivalent to it making fixed payments to the poor over time, like it already does? Maybe it should pay more, but that can be achieved without transferring ownership of anything.
Not a very enlightening entry, and the snide comment on the Holocaust is reprehensible.
October 15, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Charlotte
I don’t get it. I don’t find this the least bit funny or enlightening. What point are you trying to make.
October 15, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Lyle_S
Grow up winers
October 15, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Anonymous
nice spelling
October 16, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Lyle_s
Scroo yew amonomus
October 16, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Ed
hmm, I thought Jeff took pride in having good taste. Maybe he was attempting to be “hip” with the Silverman video, but it calls into question his judgement.
October 16, 2009 at 5:16 pm
beau
why don’t you sell the smithsonian instead?
October 18, 2009 at 12:01 am
Anonymous
yes. this is quite silly. the vatican is at least doing something for the poor people, somehow. a better idea therefore would be to sell florida to china.
the sad part of this is that the video is not that funny. in any case, jeff, your blog is entertaining and so keep going.
October 23, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Daniel Reeves
Holy decadence, that made me laugh so hard I cried. And I’m on board with Jeff’s more socially efficient tweak to Sara Silverman’s already brilliant plan.
November 17, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Nic
It’s just funny, it’s tagged under funny…good stuff, go sara..get Matt Damon to sell his a.s.