Why are you asking me? Do you think I need some? I’ve been happily married to the Risque-wife for a good number of years and I married her because the expected search costs were greater than the value of the expected likelihood of finding someone of higher quality. When you find the best it is hard to do better! If people would just use a proper search algorithm there would be no need for dating advisors and matching agencies. However, I just saw this post at Reason’s Hit and Run by Kerry Howley on Internet dating, price caps, and insurance and I couldn't let it go by without a link. Note given that this is a wholesome family web log (we post pictures of our puppies!), I’ll leave it to you to read the comments at the above link.
Here is the main point…
Civil Court Judge Diane Lebedeff awarded one woman, identified by the pseudonym Jennifer Doe, the $1,000 she had paid for a six-month membership after the woman said she had met no one through the service. The judge awarded the other woman, Debra Roe, the $3,790 she paid for a 54-month deal.
Because Great Expectations' contract guaranteed no specific number of referrals each month, the service could legally charge no more than $25 per member, the judge said.
Evidently, NY also has a dating service law which the judge used to make her decision.
A 54 month deal? She must have had low search costs, been risk averse, or been a pessimist.
Given Reasons libertarian bent there are many questions in the comments about litigation risk for dates who don’t measure up to standards expectations (to put it politely), whether these matching services are legalized pimping, and whether the libertarian solution is to have …… (drum roll please) an insurance market to mitigate the risk of mis-performing dates!
Here is the Law.com article and by the way, what kind of state feels it has to pass a Dating Service Law? Actually, on second thought I like the idea. I think we need to have a state commissioner of dating who has authority to approve dating service contracts and their performance as well as having the authority to punish those parties who breach by failing to show due to bad hair, a car break down, or a head ache. The law should allow the Commissioner of Dating or a court with appropriate jurisdiction to figure out what the dater’s reasonable expectations were for the date and a reasonable remedy should be to mandate performance if it is the best interest of the dater.
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