Recently, my friend group decided to all pitch in to get my friend Charlotte an Outdoor Voices exercise dress for her upcoming birthday. Unfortunately, the package was lost by the mail, and we were sent a replacement dress. Much to our surprise, the dress showed up a few days later. Our friend group now had two exercise dresses, but we had only paid for one. (While this may sound immoral), our group kept both dresses. Now, we all equally share the extra dress coined the "Traveling Dress," and we rotate who has possession/wearing privileges week by week.
After our discussion about Buchanan's continuum of private versus public goods, I have come to the conclusion that this shared private good amongst friends falls somewhere along that continuum. The degree of publicness shifts as the optimal number of consumers may no longer be just one because it makes everyone happy to share and everyone financially contributed equally. Now, the personal marginal benefits may differ amongst us similar to the levee example from class concerning Chase vs. Sampson, but no one was willing to disclose that information/preference (an issue involving preference revelation). In theory, we created our own club by limiting it to the original contributors to Charlotte's gift (even though we didn't actually pay into it a second time...).
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