Wat Tyler wrote:

>Bill Bartlett wrote:
>. . .
>>
>>Well, "freeloader" is a yankee expression.
>>
>. . .
>
>No.

Oh sorry, I thought it was. Where does the word originate then Wat?

> The Freeloader Problem refers to someone such as a worker who benefits
>from the presence of a labor union but doesn't pay dues or take the risks.
>The Freeloader Problem refers to theories of cooperation and not to the
>uncapitalized word "freeloader" in various personal connotations.
>This could have been obtained from Tresy's use of capitalization and a
>little thought.

Both the word and the theory derive from the sme philosophical cess-pit. I
am vaguely familiar with the so-called "Freeloader Problem" theory. I
suppose the best example is mass vaccination, where those who don't take
risks entailed in being vaccinated supposedly share the benefits. But only
so long as those who opt out are a small enough minority to eradicate the
disease, otherwise only the vaccinated benefit. The same would apply in the
case of a labour union (assuming for the sake of argument that the mere
existence of a labour union conferred benefits.)

This is a general rule. But as I said, it has no social, let alone
evolutionary, consequences when only a minority "freeload". The point being
that the incentive to freeload automatically ceases to exist at the point
where freeloading actually becomes a social problem. It is
"self-regulating" in other words, no need to obsess about it, no need to
factor it in, it doesn't exist as a "problem", so the theory is a fraud.

This whole "freeloader" obsession is merely an ideological justification
for maintaining artifical scarcity in the face of the end of any material
need for scarcity and thus maintaining a redundant economic system designed
to cope with scarcity. Dribbling on about about "freeloaders" ignores the
fact that a small minority of freeloaders cannot cause any economic harm to
the majority. Whereas obsessively persecuting them does have demonstrable
adverse consequences for the great majority, in terms of the insecurity
that everyone must be subjected to, merely to punish the odd imaginary
"freeloader".

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell tas