Freeridership

I have long felt that we are alluded by free-rider problem. The degree of its adversity is not only a concern among my folks, but to a great extent, very unfortunately, the problem is wide-spread evenly to the both worlds which I am part of, the United States and Nepal. As much as I want to avert the free rider problem, in reality, the problem seems more abundant and long ignored within us.

Without being bias, let’s explore the possibilities of how and why this problem has ruled our day to day activities. Can we blame ourselves for building up this kind of mind set up?
Without a doubt, the notion of fairness is controversial. Time and again it is tough to relinquish the opportunity, undeniably. And on top if it is provided for free, then who would want to pay for it? Of course the Government, who else could hold such a generous heart. Although through the government the societies address free rider problems, nonetheless, the government cannot alone ensure to reduce the shrinkage of the current economic situation if we ourselves are not held accountable to our actions. Understanding the verity, in the U.S, we have had 3 surpluses and approximately 37 annual deficits since the great depression (1969). How long can the Government hold to fix churning labor market or guarantees to pay the social security benefits to the retirees when the social security trust funds are depleting slowly. Matter of fact, by 2041, Social security trust will run out of fund completely when our demographics revels that we will bear influxes of baby boomer generations. What we have not realized is that we already have too many problems to void and pass it to the government to fix it.

I grew up in Nepal seeing people riding free on the voting preference of others. I did find here in the U.S with some folks who have stretched their last few dollars to pay health insurance, yet others have ridden free without paying any part on premiums. The existence of free riding is everywhere. I question to myself why are we reluctant to tackle the problem that we encounter with our own capabilities? Without even contemplating the problem twice, we quickly resolve it by generalizing that we ought to think this way because why only we should initiate. Let the other people ache their head. We are so accustomed to somebody doing it for us, and it is heavenly safe if other does it for us, atleast we don’t have to put up with the risks.

As much as I don’t want to acknowledge the situation, yet it is stunningly shameful.

I do understand the fact that societal norms may have grounded us to array our clean, white, shiny and lovely of ourselves. Circumventing, we portray our living by forming a culture of outsmarting at the cost of others. As if it has been our trend and we could never excel otherwise to our endeavors. Let’s not even whisper of considering and respecting others because that might conflict our interest right away. We ought to have shortsightedness in being accountable.

On the other side, we live in the society where the media poses constant threat, as if one slides away little bit from the fancy presumable world, that could be the end of it. It is tough not to be preoccupied with the thoughts of gaining perfection by competing others constantly. When the outcome is so laudable in the eyes of others, who wouldn’t want to compete? Such practice has jeopardized many ventures. Afterall it is all and only about winning the game. The message we get from our medias is no different than those infomercials whose purpose is to promote their sponsor’s product, rather than to search for the best way to improve it.

Time and again when the going gets tough, we demonstrate it by riding it on free.
This ever lasting trend of freeridership has distorted us and our community. I question to myself, “Why do we exhibit so disparate preferences? How far should we head to redeem ourselves free from freeridership???