Collective Action and Detergent

Friedmans famously says “The fewer issues on which agreement is necessary the greater the likelihood of getting agreement while having a free society. (24)” 

I currently live with roommates and there are times when we have to come together, collectively, to determine the goods/services we are willing to have, one of those being laundry detergent. Each of the four of us has different preferences when it comes to detergent and its consumption. I prefer All Liquid, Declan prefers Tide pods, and so on. Last year we collectively agreed upon Tide Liquid and to have me purchase it the first time then Declan and so on until it was my turn again.  However, as the first unit was consumed there was no urgency from Declan to buy more. I do my laundry the most in my apartment so I was the first to feel the burden. Being unwilling to go long without washing my clothes I purchased another unit. And was once again promised by my apartment mates that one of them would purchase it next time.

As the second unit of Tide came and went I realized I would be going without detergent again so I purchased All Liquid and kept it in my room. A week went by and Sami to his dismay found no detergent left so he purchased Tide liquid. Not so long after Declan found himself in a similar situation and asked the group why we had no detergent. I recommended that we all buy our own detergent given our different preferences for it and its consumption. But to my dismay, my recommendation was ill-received, which made me question if Friedman was right after all. Since everyone had their own preference toward laundry detergent and its consumption then naturally everyone buying their own detergent made the most sense economically…right? But upon reflection, I realized my mistake: I didn’t take into account that by privatizing the detergent the rest of my apartment mates would finally have to buy their own detergent. This meant my apartmentmates could no longer free-ride and would have to bear the costs of detergent. I decided to continue purchasing my own detergent for the rest of the year and eventually, everyone purchased their own detergent too.