The trouble with ‘free riders’

Last Wednesday’s cancellation of work and classes at Indiana University was still a day of learning for me. 

I am a graduate student who lives in campus apartments. Because of the snowfall Wednesday, I had to shovel a fair amount of snow in order to move my car. I spent about one hour shoveling snow so I was able to move my car and travel to the store. When I returned to my apartment complex, someone had parked in the newly shoveled parking spot.

Now some may be saying the University does not assign parking spots. The individual who parked in the parking spot where I had recently removed the snow has the right to park in any spot they have a permit for, no matter who removed the snow.

To those people, I say you are absolutely 100 percent correct. This phenomenon is called “free riding” by economists. It is a common concern in public policy, and it is when an individual gains a benefit, or benefits, at no cost to them. But I am not writing this letter to give an economics seminar.

I am writing this letter because while I was shoveling snow, I saw many people doing the same. What was truly disturbing to me was when I saw someone who was not handicapped using a handicapped parking spot that had been plowed by the University for parking their vehicle. 

As for me, I used my shovel for another 45 minutes and cleaned myself a spot to park.  What is disturbing about this, at least to me, is how some people, the “free riders,” can take so many personal liberties at the cost of others without concern. 

I truly hope a handicapped person did not need the spot occupied by the illegally-parked vehicle.  What that illegally-parked individual would have gotten for punishment was their vehicle towed or a ticket.  But I think a better punishment would have been to make him or her shovel the entire parking lot. 

Then at least they would think twice about occupying a handicapped spot. Also, the individual would have provided a benefit to society.

Jason Oberle
IU graduate student