Written By: Kasey Schlicht
I’m sure many of you have taken advantage of the wondrous and life saving resource that holds the name of Mr. Clifford, a well known YouTuber that teaches numerous different lessons on Economics. While he used to make a living by teaching Economics at a high school, he decided to quit and become a full time YouTuber and try to make a profit through creating videos and selling his Ultimate Review Packet. While the majority of his videos act as a public service for all to view, with the purchase of his review packet you are provided with extra resources such as more videos, practice problems, and worksheets. Therefore, since you have to pay for this extra service and goods that come along with it, you might think that it would classify as a private good; however, since this is nonexcludable, due to the fact that Mr. Clifford cannot prevent people from sharing his links and packet, and that it is nonrival in consumption, his service and goods are in fact public. Some may ask, if anyone can share Mr. Clifford’s content without paying, how is he stilling earning a profit?
While Mr. Clifford cannot get the government involved in order to prevent free riders, there are other measures he takes to ensure he makes the largest profit possible. One of the main things Mr. Clifford does, is appeal to people’s altruism. For example, he puts up different sayings on his different worksheets, video descriptions, video scripts, and much more, saying that if you are sharing these goods then you are “a total jerk” or “not cool.” Something Mr. Clifford could possibly do in the future to make sure there are no more free riders, is create individualized accounts for those who purchase his Ultimate Review Guide, which would then require a login username and password that would be created upon purchase. This would help him turn his public service into a private service and maximize his profit.While Mr. Clifford’s service and goods are currently doing well, I’m sure a couple of you are either free riders or know of some to his very own service, which prove that the number of users without paying will only rise as his goods do. If he reaches a point where he attempted to turn his service and goods private, or even asked for donations from the viewers, and he begins to have a negative profit, then Mr. Clifford may not even provide videos and packets at all, harming both his lifestyle as well as his viewers. This is a prime example of how free riders can cause economic inefficiency and overall market failure, as Mr. Clifford would have to shut down his service if the problem caused him to greatly decrease profit and ultimately lose money.
Free riding occurs more often than one might think, as I’m sure you can think back to your day today and identify plentiful amounts of things you did, took advantage of, and didn’t have to pay for. While these type of harmless free riding are fine to do, such as stealing a couple bites of your friend’s sandwich you didn’t pay for or watching a show with a friend on their Netflix account you didn’t buy, just think about the consequences to a seller (possibly shutting down from negative profit) when you’re trying to sneak into a paid event or even ask someone else for Mr. Clifford’s Ultimate Review Guide…
If you want to learn more about public goods and free riding from our good pal himself, Mr. Clifford, check out this video! Don’t worry, this video is a public good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsWuzS_dEM8
Works Cited
Clifford, Jacob. “Public Goods and Free Riders- Micro 6.1.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsWuzS_dEM8.
“Free Rider Problem.” Intelligent Economist, Intelligent Economist, 18 May 2018, www.intelligenteconomist.com/free-rider-problem/.
Pettinger, Tejvan. “Free Rider Problem.” Economics Help, www.economicshelp.org/blog/1626/economics/free-rider-problem/.
I love the relevant example! It's cool how his service is both a public good and nonexcludable. He'd like to think that it is not, by appealing to people's consciences but in reality he can't stop people from sharing the packet. You had a good idea of making it a service, accessible through a username and password, which would make his service excludable, but I wonder what that would do for his profits since his free riders not only use the service you would pay for, but also watch his Youtube videos which count the views. Or would people not even bother to buy the packet since it is too much of a hassle and continue the free riders problem by reverting to the free videos he has on Youtube?
ReplyDeleteAgastya Asthana,
ReplyDeleteI agree that free riders are a problem to the economy and negatively impact it. I do watch Mr. Clifford’s videos and I love the relevant example. I agree that free riders are bad but having just one or two free riders may not have such a negative impact since if you take three steps forward and one step back, you’re still making progress; in this case, profit. If Mr. Clifford keeps making more packets then there has to be at least one person to buy it. I love your idea of making the packets password protected but those who have the password are easily able to share that with their peers.
I agree that the free riders are bad, they are taking away profit from the guy you are talking about, because other people can sell his things for less than he's selling it. So they are pretty much scamming him, and there's nothing he can do about it. While this guy is still doing well and most people don't even know about those free riders, he still could be doing better.
ReplyDeleteI think you make an interesting point that we don't often think about how working around paying for something, such as sharing Mr. Clifford's review materials or a Netflix account, can affect the seller. Obviously, Netflix can afford to have some free riders, but someone like Mr. Clifford may not. I think the fact that Mr. Clifford is a small business (in a way), and not a massive media conglomerate like Netflix makes people more conscious about how their free riding affects his business.
ReplyDeleteI can see how free riders are bad for Mr.Clifford, often times people are just trying to be helpful for a friend when they would think of sharing his packet but what they don't really realize is by sharing this packet they are also hurting the seller (Mr.Clifford).
ReplyDeleteI agree that Mr. Clifford does try to turn people away from sharing his materials by using funny sayings and keeping the user of the packet loyal to him. But, at the same time, there will always be free riders. Especially in the format of an online service, that does not require a login, and just a link. At the same time, many viewers of his videos see the value in his service, as Economics is a hard class, and want to continue to see his channel flourishing so they can get the help they need. He also does not make as much profit as a company, such as Netflix, that can afford some free riders here and there. If there was an influx of people sharing the links to the packets, I understand that could be an issue, as his profit would decrease largely.
ReplyDeleteThis post was so interesting to read, especially since I'm an avid Mr. Clifford video watcher, myself. As a quick side note, society makes it really hard for teachers to have the potential to raise their pay. What I mean by this is that employers will often choose not to hire college graduates with a masters degree because there is a lot of turnover and they are scared the teacher will go somewhere with higher pay. So, most teachers go back to school after having a secured job so that they can obtain that higher education and get a pay raise. With that being said, Mr. Clifford made the decision to forgo the extra trip back to school and quit teaching in an environment that restricted him, so he could make more profit off of being a youtuber. However, with this comes the trust of consumers because his content is a private good, but (as you mentioned) there is no access restriction to those who don't pay for it. So, Mr. Clifford should come up with a more effective way to avoid free riders, so his business doesn't fail.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very captivating as I had never really thought about how Mr. Clifford truly does stay in business. It certainly would be very easy to gain access to his ultimate review packet without paying. He must truly have a lot of faith in his fans because his business is ultimately based on the honor system. I personally would not trust others and I believe he is missing out on an opportunity to make more money because there are certainly free riders who are too cheap to spend the 7 dollars it takes to gain access to the ultimate review guide. If I were in his place I would find a more effective way to sell the guide.
ReplyDeleteI never really even thought that the economic topics that Mr. Clifford talks about can actually apply to his own YouTube channel. This was a really creative topic because as I said I never thought of it before. But, yes I think if Mr. Clifford has a format where you need a username and password would drastically decrease the amount of free riders that would us his resources and make the good a private good. Also there is the point that by doing that it could drastically decrease his profit, but I guess you never know until you try.
ReplyDeleteFree riders, something that every society will face, no matter what the situation is. Understanding, how much free riders effect and impact any given person, or organization is what really matters. This article really taps into the technology aspect of free riders, and how easy it is now to get a 'free version' of something online through screen grabs, copied texted, or recorded content. Since technology is growing at such an exponential rate, creating ways for people to only have access to certain products online is growing increasing hard. Is this something that our nation is able to tackle, or is it something that is just going to be accepted? This relates to cd's and movies at blockbusters. One person would buy an album, and then make copies for all of their friends and family. Or you would rent a movie from the local block buster, and then make a copy for you to keep. Is this something that can truly be regulated?
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article because it was relevant to our class. I think that there are definitely things Mr. Clifford could do to prevent free riders like having a website with a login. I am sure that he knows that people are free riding especially because of the messages he puts about the redistribution. It is possible that he has competition that isn't doing as well because they may be blocking the free riders and making their own service less accessible. For that reason, opening up to free riders might be beneficial for Mr. Clifford.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you wrote an article that econ students can relate to first of all. Secondly I agree free riders in this situation are causing an inefficiency to everyone. People who like Mr.Clifford don't realize by sharing just one document that it doesn't harm them but it actually does. By doing this Clifford is more likely to go out of business.
ReplyDeleteI think that a big reason that many people don't "free ride" is due to the moral obligation in which they feel bad. I also think that many people are "afraid" to use free resources that traditionally cost money, for the same reason that people go to the movie theater instead of watching illegal movies online. Free riders, no doubt, cause some major market inefficiencies, and if the problem persists and snowballs, I agree, Mr. Clifford will incur loss.
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