Looking at these pictures what comes to mind?
Free Riders: A free rider is a person who benefits from something without expending effort or paying for it. In other words, free riders are those who utilize goods without paying for their use.
Public Goods: Public goods are commodities or services that benefit all members of society, and which are often provided for free through public taxation.
Rivalry: Indicates that one person's consumption of a product reduces the amount available for consumption by another.
Excludability: Excludability means that producers can prevent some people from consuming the good or service based on their ability or willingness to pay.
Educational Quote:
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." ~ B. B. King
Weekly Insights:
This weeks readings has enlightened me on the problem of free riding in OER. This has become a problem because while not paying for the good (either directly through fee or tolls or indirectly through taxes) they may continue to access or consume it. Thus, the good may be under-produced, overused or degraded.
Here is an example of the free-rider problem:
A person without health insurance visiting an emergency room since they cannot be turned away. The free rider problem occurs when individuals who gains from resources, goods or services but do not pay for them.
To determine whether a good is a private good, public good, artificially scarce good, or common resource, knowing the difference between rivalry and excludability is helpful.
Here's a video that I found to be helpful
When you think about it free things are great. Some things are free, because they occur naturally, such as beaches and mountains. Other things, while they cost money, are available even to those who do not pay for it, such as services provided by the government, such as military protection. From an economic standpoint, there is a problem in analyzing free goods, often called public goods since they are available to all.
Here is a great video on public vs private goods
In terms of OER. Most common resources are public goods because they are not excludable. However, they are rivalry in consumption, because their use diminishes the value or lesson the quantity available to others.
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