The Morecambe bay cockle pickers: market failure or government disaster?

"The tragic deaths of twenty-three young Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay on the Lancashire coast have been attributed to the machinations of global capitalism. In fact, these migrant workers came to the UK to escape the poverty created by socialism in China and were working under a regime of state-regulated access to the cockle beds. An alternative market-orientated regime of private property rights in the cockle beds might have prevented the tragedy." Copyright (c) Institute of Economic Affairs 2004.