Charles Lane channels Mancur Olson on the effectiveness of "collective action," that President Obama spoke so highly of during his second inaugural.

Writes Lane:

... large numbers of people do not naturally band together to secure common interests. In fact, the larger the group, theless likely it is to act in a truly collective manner.

As Olson explained, the interests that unite large groups are necessarily of the lowest-common-denominator variety. Therefore the concrete benefits of collective action to any individual are usually small compared with the costs — in time, effort and money — of participation. “Free-riding” is a constant threat — as the difficulties of collecting union dues illustrates.

Read it all.