Last summer, my friend Natalie and I went on an amazing camping trip on a llama farm. When my roommates heard about my trip, they were freshly inspired by TikTok videos of people on wholesome camping trips with their friends. Determined to make the videos a reality for themselves, they implored me to take them to the llama farm.
When it was just me and Natalie, the planning process was seamless. Since the responsibility of achieving our common interest of going camping fell on our shoulders alone, with no one else to defer responsibility to, we were extremely efficient in our planning of the trip. Unfortunately, now that I’m planning with all of my roommates, I feel like I’m in one of Olsen’s “Privileged Groups,” and it’s solely up to me to deliver the collective good. As we’ve seen so many times in Public Choice, as the size of the group increases, so too does the potential for free-riders. It’s become clear that the responsibility has been deferred to me to create the reservation, gather camping gear, and plan the logistics of our trip. In this privileged group, it would seem I am the benefactor who enables the others to free ride.
As I plan our trip, I face a dilemma of marginal costs. If we were to go camping on a Thursday, we would receive a weekday discount of $10. As a result, the marginal cost of going on a Friday instead would be $10. But because we have class on Thursdays, we wouldn’t arrive at the farm until 8 pm, so we’d have less time camping. On the other hand, going on a Friday would allow us to begin our trip much earlier in the day. However, the Friday we are considering falls on the 13th. My marginal cost of going on Friday the 13th is likely greater than that of my roommates, given that I am the only one with any camping experience. Should disaster strike, I’d become responsible not only for my own safety, but for that of my ignorant, helpless roommates as well. And so, the predicament I face is this: do the marginal benefits of going on Friday outweigh the marginal costs? If you see us in the newspaper because I chose Friday, at least you’ll know that I weighed the costs and benefits like a true economist.
1 comment:
When I was reading your post, I thought the section about feeling like a benefactor providing the collective good to your friends was interesting. I think something to consider is the fact that you have prior experience going on this camping compared to your friends. Perhaps your friends know, if even subconsciously, that your cost to plan out the camping trip is less than what it would cost each of them individually to plan out the trip or even what it would cost if they planned it together. I assume there is research involved in planning this camping trip that would cost time and gear to gather that would cost money. Considering you completed this research and bought at least some, if not all, of this equipment with your friend Natalie. Your roommates might know if you try to put the burden of planning the trip onto them, that they can guilt you by demonstrating the deadweight loss of them planning the trip instead of you. They can point out that it would be a "waste" or "loss" of time and money for them to do work and make purchases that you have already done and made. So maybe it is better to look at your situation as a more allocatively efficient outcome instead of an outcome where you simply have to do more work.
Post a Comment