TOLFA Segment 7, Question 8

It's all very well saying that if a service is "essential" the market would provide it. But what about the "free rider" problem; there are some services like national defense which cannot be priced for discrete sale to large numbers of individuals. Don't they need to be furnished by government and paid for by taxes? Indeed there are some such needs, and taxation is the only feasible way to fund them.
The premise is false; there are no collective needs, only individual ones. The alleged problem does not exist.
Where there's a will, there's a way. The "free rider" problem is grabbed by collectivists like lifebuoys are grabbed by drowning men, but if you work at it, a way can be found to fund such needs without taxes.

Don't hurry away; even when you've got the right answer, try clicking on the others to see why they are wrong! Then when you have correctly answered this make notes in your student notebook, then go to Question 9.

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