Last month I spent $100 dollars to boost this facebook post. Here's the bang I got for my $100 bucks...
Reach: 3,075 people
Post Likes: 126
Link Clicks: 2
Page Likes: 7
Here was my target audience...
Age: 30-50
Gender: Male
Interest: Adam Smith, Libertarianism, Free market or Economics
Location: United States
Here's the relevant economic concept...
We all really want something to be brought "thither". But this something isn't a physical commodity/product... it's freedom. Even though freedom isn't a physical product... the same rule applies. The more money that's spent to bring freedom thither... the more freedom that will be brought thither.The market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the rent, labour, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Such people may be called the effectual demanders, and their demand the effectual demand; since it may be sufficient to effectuate the bringing of the commodity to market. It is different from the absolute demand. A very poor man may be said in some sense to have a demand for a coach and six; he might like to have it; but his demand is not an effectual demand, as the commodity can never be brought to market in order to satisfy it. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
The challenge is that we all want to have our cake and eat it too. You would like to keep your money and have your freedom. I'm in the same boat! We're all in the same boat. Which is a problem because, unless we spend our money... we're not going to get something that we all really want!
In other words... we're not going to make any real progress until we face the fact that the free-rider problem is a real problem.
Does the free-rider problem always have to be solved with coercion? NO!!!!
Let's take this forum for example. I use this forum and benefit from this forum but I've never once given Bryan any money to support this forum. Does this make me a free-rider? In my book it does. Sure, Bryan could try and solve the free-rider problem by creating a paywall. Then, the only way that I could participate on this forum would be if I paid say $5 dollars a month. Would I be willing to pay $5 dollars a month to participate on this forum? Errr... not sure. But I'd certainly be happy to pay $1 dollar a month to participate on this forum. So why don't I voluntarily do so? Because I want to have my cake and eat it too.
Another possible solution to the free-rider problem would be for Bryan to sweeten the deal. I'd sure be happy to voluntarily pay $1 dollar a month if Bryan placed a large banner ad for my blog at the top of every page on this website! I'm guessing that it would send quite a bit of traffic to my blog... so it would be a pretty sweet deal for me. Would it be a sweet deal for Bryan as well? Maybe not?
Perhaps a better solution would be for Bryan to create a page that lists...
1. donors
2. the total amount that they've donated
3. a link to their website
This list would be sorted by total donation. So the more you donate.... the higher up on the page the link to your website... and the more traffic your website would receive. And perhaps the websites of the top 5 donors could be listed on this website's homepage.
I'm not saying that this would perfectly solve the free-rider problem. But clearly it would provide more incentive to contribute. And it definitely wouldn't involve any coercion.
Let's review...
1. Spending is required to bring freedom thither
2. Everybody wants to have their cake and eat it too
3. Incentives matter
Even if you disagree with the second premise... hopefully you should agree with the first and third premise. You should agree that it's necessary to try and maximize the incentive to contribute.
Ok, so yeah, I spent $100 dollars to try and bring freedom thither. And perhaps you don't necessarily understand or agree with the message that I spent $100 dollars to boost... but please try and pretend that it was a message that you do thoroughly understand and agree with. Please pretend that you did benefit from my sacrifice. Then try and figure out what would incentivize you to chip in to help share my sacrifice. What would motivate you to help me bear the burden of my boost? What would encourage you to paypal me $1 dollar?
Imagine a subreddit where I could share the link to the facebook post that I boosted. If you liked my sacrifice... then you could vote my link up. If you disliked my sacrifice... then you could vote my link down. With this sub... the most popular sacrifices would get the most exposure/attention/accolades/discussion/scrutiny.
If such a sub existed... would you be more inclined to chip in to bring freedom thither? If not, then can you think of another type of system that would maximize your incentive to contribute? If you were going to create a website with the goal of maximizing people's incentive to contribute... how would you structure your website?
Here are a couple messages that I'd also like to boost...
Public services are never better performed than when their reward comes only in consequence of their being performed, and is proportioned to the diligence employed in performing them. - Adam Smith, Wealth of NationsI'm willing to spend $10 dollars to boost the first and $5 dollars to boost the second. How much money would you be wiling to paypal me to help boost these messages?Individual decision making is closely connected to creativity not because all choices are excellent, but because they constitute a broad field out of which the best responses can emerge. If we wished to establish a connection to Darwinian ideas, we could say that the wide spectrum of decisions is similar to the field of the spontaneous variations of living things from which the pressure of natural selection preserves only the most apt. Without such experimental structures and behaviours, responses remain stagnant and life sinks under the weight of institutionalised routine. Freedom multiplies actions and ideas, some of which turn out to be brilliant and others fundamentally flawed. The important fact, however, is that few if any of them could have occurred under conditions of enforced conformity. To leave people alone with their projects is to permit - even to encourage - the exercise of private imaginations. - John Lachs
What are the top three messages that you would be wiling to spend the most money to boost on Facebook? How much money would you be willing to spend to boost them?
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