Interesting column on TCS: Bathroom Duty on the topic of free-riders.

No one likes cleaning bathrooms, but most people like their bathrooms to be clean. When several people share a bathroom, a free rider game may manifest in which some attempt to free ride off the efforts of others.



In Iraq, America is cleaning one of the world's dirtiest bathrooms. Unfortunately, few are helping us, and some are even attempting to charge America for the privilege of cleaning up. America's strength makes her particularly vulnerable to free rider exploitation. Without our help, there is no hope of removing infectious dictators, so unlike lesser nations like France, we can't do nothing and rely on others to do the work. Furthermore, because our military strength gave us the ability to remove Saddam by ourselves, other nations knew their assistance wasn't necessary for our success.

In justifying his support of America's impending liberation of Iraq, the Japanese Prime Minister said "The U.S. is the only ally providing Tokyo with deterrent power against any foreign country that could threaten regional security, such as North Korea, and the Japanese people should never forget it." Sadly, however, while the Japanese gave us $10 billion for our first Iraq war, they probably won't give us anything for this one. Japan is facing a significant threat to her national security, recognizes the U.S. is the only country who can help, yet feels comfortable giving us only verbal support in our current struggle. While showing more gratitude than the French, the Japanese are still content to mostly free ride on American military might.

Our free rider problems aren't limited to the Iraqi conflict. American taxpayers spend more per capita on the military than any other nation. We are a relatively secure country whose people yearn for peace, so why do we have such a large military? France, Germany and Japan know that the U.S. armed forces will ultimately protect their sovereignty. Consequently, they can cut military expenditures and still feel safe by counting on America's military protection. In contrast, the American people know that their security, as well as the security of the entire Western world, is dependent upon the strength of the U.S. armed forces.



Like I've written here many times, if "Old Europe" doesn't see the need to pay for their own defense, I fail to see why we should do so. If they see no threat, then there'd be no problem with us moving or withdrawing our forces. If there is a threat, then it's their responsibility to address it. This isn't a trivial expense - we pay tens of billions every year to provide for their defense.