In my "Philosophy 1" courses this semester, as usual, I have a unit on "collective action problems," which segues into a discussion of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and his notorious argument that, in the "state of nature" (a hypothetical condition prior to the institution of government), people, pursuing security, would inevitably find themselves in a war of "all against all" in which an individual's life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
It's hard to discuss these things and not see the obvious connection to our current circumstances. So I wrote to my students, saying the following:
Something I want you to consider: is the Covid-19 crisis (i.e., the current pandemic) a “collective action problem”?
A collective action problem … is a situation in which all individuals would be better off cooperating but fail to do so because of conflicting interests between individuals that discourage joint action (Wikipedia)
Free rider: a benefit obtained at another's expense or without the usual cost or effort (Merriam-Webster)
Some history:
On Dec 7, 1941, Japan declared war on the US and attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor. The next day, the US Congress declared war on Japan. Soon thereafter, in response, Italy and Germany declared war on the U.S. At that point, the US was at war with the formidable Axis powers.
Cue America's “greatest generation”: people from all walks of life were immediately inspired to do their part in the defense of their country. Men joined the military; children organized to collect construction materials for the war effort; women replaced men in factories; etc. Sacrifices were made by virtually everyone.
We wonder: faced with a similar threat, would we witness that kind of patriotic or civic-minded response today?
Well, some say we have an answer. In the face of the national crisis—a public health crisis—represented by the Covid-19 pandemic, many Americans voluntarily and happily joined in the effort to combat COVID: they socially distanced, wore masks, and got vaccines. —Not much of a sacrifice, but that's what was called for and many happily came through.
But many Americans have refused to do so, greatly hampering the pandemic response, helping cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands more. 292,000 American lives were lost during WWII; so far, 750,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, in great part owing to the government’s failure maximally to control the spread—a failure largely caused by citizen resistance to the suggestion that they should do their part in the pandemic effort.
One might suggest that the latter phenomenon represents classic “free riding” of the kind discussed under the heading “collective action problems.” Some people selfishly refuse to limit their freedoms (by social distancing, etc.) for the sake of the public good. A willingness to make sacrifices for the public good seemed very common in 1941, but it seems less so today.
Is that a fair picture? Many think so. It’s complicated by special motivations among these free riders: beliefs that the pandemic is a fraud, that measures (such as mask-wearing) are inefficacious, and that the government is engaged in nefarious efforts to control citizens via mask-wearing and the like.
Once one states these beliefs out loud, it is hard not to recognize their absurdity. I suppose I can tolerate some quibbling about whether masks are as effective as they are supposed to be and how safe vaccines are, but given the level of risk or sacrifice involved (apparently little), it seems that, for most of us, we ought to just shut up and wear the damned mask already. No?
