I'd define a free rider as someone who benefits from resources, goods or services without paying for the cost of the benefit.
I'd argue that we all free ride and often there is nothing wrong with it. For example, if I re-paint my house, the neighbors benefit from having an improved structure in a neighborhood. I would argue that it would be completely unreasonable to bill them at all for my work. You simply can't impose benefits on people and then send them a bill.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungIf you are poor, you can choose to work the system. Sign up for all for all the free stuff you can get, then work under the table.
No, you can't choose. The guy in the cart is rich. The horse is poor.
It's the poor shmucks who try to make an honest living and be self sufficient that gets taken advantage in this country.
Originally posted by EladarIn your analogy, such poor people are cockroaches hiding under the seat.
If you are poor, you can choose to work the system. Sign up for all for all the free stuff you can get, then work under the table.
It's the poor shmucks who try to make an honest living and be self sufficient that gets taken advantage in this country.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungLol, you think all those are retired people in the survey?
Yeah, there are some elderly and maimed horses that could work, but we don't have jobs for them. They can't pay the rent, so they get a free ride...to the glue factory.
You may complain about the roaches, but you aren't willing to see them when they are pointed out.
Originally posted by EladarMany of those people are paranoid schizophrenics who are on medications...which is not a stable situation. They have a very hard time holding jobs. The medications are unpleasant and insanity is seductive.
Lol, you think all those are retired people in the survey?
You may complain about the roaches, but you aren't willing to see them when they are pointed out.
Originally posted by Metal Brainyes i suspect it is and it seems that there is a kind of moral sensitivity that people have towards free riding, that its socially unacceptable, yet it seems to me that there are inherent benefits, for example the distribution of source code for Open source programs where people are actively rewarded and encouraged to free ride, the benefit being that the source code is available to a much broader spectrum of people and that it shall be refined and reach excellence as a direct consequence. The latest distributions of Linux blows Windows away.
Define free riding. Is it like free loading?
Another example might be in the use of drug patents where in the case of HIV, the initial cost of treatment per person was out with the reach of most sufferers, yet free riding and copying the patent and distributing the drug at a much lower cost benefited millions of persons.
another example might be downloading and distributing MP3's where the record company might argue that it has invested a lot of money in artists and especially in production costs, yet the free sharing of MP3's might in the long term make people buy legitimate copies of albums, thus benefiting the artist and record companies.