After joining my 1st company few years back, I came face to face to a kind of social creation, I could not castigate despite being a bellicose person and knowing that they are EVIL, because of corporate behavior. Those were the people who wouldn’t stand in a queue – out of habit- rather go to the front and get coupon and by the time I get my food coupon, they are halfway through their meal and there repeated act would bother me. Dodging queue might be a widely spread and acceptable behavior, maybe, but again there are people who just buy a helmet and wait for a ride or ask for a lift from a car driver every single day. When I see these people waiting on the roadside, I look at them in supercilious attitude. In other example, there are people who download pirated movie, share streaming account illegally though they do not bother me; sometimes I’m one of them.
Being agitated or being supercilious or being neutral were all part of me and not global until I came across an article arguing how suppression of dissent promotes FREE RIDING culture.
When I googled the term ‘free rider’ I came to know that the people who have been troubling me as well I too when I illegally watch a video are called free rider, a word first coined in the context of Economy and defined as individuals or groups who consume more than their fair share of public resources, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production.
Economy says the reason behind someone becoming a free rider is the lack of resources which I believe is not entirely true , after all, rich people manage to get BPL cards and someone who can afford a helmet can also afford auto or bus fair. Hence psychology comes into the picture and states that free riding surfaces due to lack of ethical values and remorse as well as the inability to foresee the consequence of action.
Economic consequences are significant, If a commodity or service is used in high volume, the profit to the owner is also high who in turns is motivated to augment the service or commodity thereby stopping the degradation however when the same is overused by free riders, the owner is not motivated to increase quality or quantity. The final result is, degradation of commodities or services.
Coming back to the local problem of free riding; and to make my point I would narrate the gist of a story I read while growing up.
“Once a kind, magnanimous Lord has a splendid and strong horse. A local robber wanted to steal this particular horse but he was afraid to confront the lord because the Lord was an adroit swordsman, so he devised a cunning plan and got dressed as a beggar and asked for lift from the lord when he was travelling alone on his magnificent horse. Being a kind person he got down and helped the robber get on the horse, the robber sensed the opportunity and started riding. The lord after realizing the scam said “Its alright take away my horse but don’t tell this incident to anyone, people will stop giving ride to the needy,they will stop believing a beggar.” “.
Similarly when someone as a habit, start jumping the queue or taking free ride , a sick or a weak person fails to get favor in queue or get a ride even though he need it dearly .
In conclusion, free riding is wrong, unethical, immoral and illegal, everyone including me should walk away from the culture of free riding.