You work in an office and one of your co-workers has announced his retirement.You have offered to purchase the retirement gift, so you place a collection jar in the lunch room for anonymous donations to help pay for the gift.After a week you find that very few dollars are in the jar, so you end up paying for a large share of the retirement gift.You are the victim of the:
A)common resource problem.
B)private good problem.
C)overuse of a common resource problem.
D)free-rider problem.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario demonstrates the free-rider problem, where individuals decide not to contribute their fair share to a common good or resource since they know they can still benefit from it regardless. The few dollars collected in the jar suggest that individuals in the office are not contributing, leaving the burden of paying for the retirement gift on the person who volunteered to purchase it.

You Work in an Office and One of Your Co-Workers