[Propertarian]

[ QUOTE ]
C'mon, you're smarter than that. I would prefer a Mercedes to a convenience store meal. Duh. Who wouldn't? But it costs a lot more. If I could get 8,000 or so people to pitch in the amount of money I'd otherwise spend on my hoagie, I'd have my new car. The obvious problem with that is, I'm not going to find 8,000 people who want to buy me a goddamn Benz. It people were hell-bent on my happiness, or if I was content to own 1/8,000 share of the Benz, the situation would become a reality. But it's not.You can't compare political movements to hobbies. Anyone would prefer their ideal society's implementation to their favorite activity. It's like comparing apples to washing machines.


[/ QUOTE ] I suppose I didn't make my point clear enough with that example. It would have been better if I had simply sad "If 5,000 other people had to type the same thing in order for this post to be created, their is no way I am going to post it"; leaving out the part about me having to do something to convince them to do it.

That is the problem with public goods and collective action; that other people also must contribute for them to be sucessful AND that your own contribution is not the deciding factor. Assume that it did take 5,000 people making a post for that post to be created. I wouldn't consider making that post; if 5,187 (12,000) people made that post, it would get posted regardless of whether or not I personally made one of the posts. If 3,150 people made the post, it would not be posted regardless of what I did.

The same logic apples to actual public goods (e.g. avoiding crime in an area, not overfishing the oceans). However, if people do something primarily because they think it is the right thing to do-as opposed to for instrumental considerations- then the public goods problem is avoided-this is the case with voting.

Edit: using your example I might be able to better illustrate this. A man walks up to you and a group of 999 other people. He says: If 800 of you contribute $1,000 bucks to me secretly, I will buy one of you a mercedes. Which one of you that will get the Mercedes will be decided by a lottery. The lottery will include all of your names i.e. you can win the car whether or not you contribute the 1,000$ or not, as long as at least 800 people contribute. Assume you know the dealer is telling the truth. Do you contribute 1k to him?