Jubi(30015)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Is collective action always good???
We have all been writing how absolutely necessary is collective action..but is this collective action always good?? When American Army collectively attacks over Iraq....or when people co-operate to form a cartel (OPEC)....or when countries come together to fight each other(world wars)....what good is this collective action doing to the world..People do achieve what they want through collective action....but may be, these ambitions just serve the purpose of a handful few...what happens to the larger society... shouldn't somebody think about the greater good???
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9 comments:
Collective actions are undertaken in order to maximize the earnings of it's members. Working for a common good might mean that the collective action is focussed towards philanthropic causes. This will reduce the benefits of it's members to the extent that the costs exceed benefits thereby making the existence of the collection action as irrational.
Good or bad involves value judgement. When people come together for collective action their motivation is the benefits they derive via the costs they have to accrue. They will try to do what is good for them and need not be swayed by lofty ideals. For example cartelisation by OPEC is for protecting their own interests and preventing cannibalisation among oil producers.
well no system is perfect......it is the intention of a collective action that actually makes a difference rather than the notion of "collective action" itself.....so we need to look at the intentions or objective of an action rather than just questioning the entire idea of a collective action!!!!
Rashi(p30031)
what is good and what is bad is relative.people do action and rationalize it as good which may be bad for others ,like freedom movement in india may be bad collective action for british rule at that time
well said. but it depends upon the heads of the respective nations to look into the various aspects and all of them would certainly weigh the options...i mean the cost benefit analysis before they join these kind of cartels or assosciations. SAARC, Commonwealth, NATO , G -7 countries etc fall under this thing. one cannot decide staright away its merits and demerits. something benefits a country by joining these assosciations where someone might loose out. it all comes down to the Cost benefit.
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