According to Fox 5 News, on February 26, 2016, the San Diego Chargers announced that they would be pursuing a downtown stadium project near the convention center and that they were seeking more than $1 billion in public funding because the “multi-use facility would generate economic activity on hundreds of days per year, including by attracting major sporting and convention events that San Diego cannot now host.”
a) The Chargers are essentially arguing that the public should contribute to the project because once the stadium is built all residents benefit from its presence and none can be prevented from benefitting. Using the tools discussed in class, make the formal economic argument for why the collective should pay for the stadium. Demonstrate and explain your answer.
b) In general, what should be the goal of collective action? Explain.
c) Why is it difficult to achieve this goal? Explain.
d) What mechanism do we normally use to make collective decisions? How does this mechanism address the problem identified in (c)? Explain.