FREE-RIDER PROBLEM: The inclination to enjoy the benefit of a good without paying for it--if you don't have to. This is the main reason public goods are produced by government. Most people won't voluntarily pay for a public good, because excludability means they can get it without paying--a free ride. With a large number of free riders--perhaps everyone--voluntary payments like those occurring in markets won't provide enough revenue to pay production costs. The only way to finance public goods is to force free-riders, and everyone else, to pay through taxes.

     See also | public good | excludability | rival consumption | good types | market | taxes | production cost |

FREE-RIDER PROBLEM, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2023. [Accessed: January 31, 2023].

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The total expenditures on gross domestic product undertaken in a given time period by the four sectors--household, business, government, and foreign. Expenditures made by each of these sectors are commonly termed consumption expenditures, investment expenditures, government purchases, and net exports. Aggregate expenditures (AE) are a cornerstone in the study of macroeconomics, playing critical roles in Keynesian economics, aggregate market analysis, and to a lesser degree, monetarism. In particular, aggregate expenditures are combined with the price level as aggregate demand.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching for a specialty store wanting to buy either a lazy Susan for you dining room table or a set of serrated steak knives, with durable plastic handles. Be on the lookout for empty parking spaces that appear to be near the entrance to a store.
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