Collective action against inflation fails because individual restraint could serve it equally.

Evidence

As the political scientist Mancur Olson already concluded at the end of his 1972 Logic of Collective Action, social groups could not “be expected to organize or act simply because the gains from group action would exceed the costs … Why would the people of this (or any other) country organize politically to prevent inflation when they could serve their common interest in price stability just as well if they all spent less as individuals?” Central banks could raise rates and thereby refigure the economic landscape; flood would turn into drought. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 148

Categorization

• DEFINE: The passage deploys Olson’s collective action problem — diffuse common interests like price stability are under-organized because free-riding benefits individuals — a concept the chapter relies on.
• XREF: connects to: Cooperation fails even when it would benefit all individuals involved. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2690; Rational individual self-interest can cumulatively destroy shared collective resources.; Monetary inflation was cast as merely a symptom of governmental and worker misbehavior — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 783 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Mutually beneficial cooperation often fails to arise among rational individuals #corroborates (0.90) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2690
• Cooperation fails even when it would benefit all individuals involved. #corroborates (0.85) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2690
• Rational self-interest yields collectively disastrous resource depletion #corroborates (0.85) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2498
• Rational individual self-interest can cumulatively destroy shared collective resources. #corroborates (0.80)
• Individual and selective deceleration fails because those who slow down pay steep penalties #exemplifies (0.80) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 282
• High stakes and shared awareness do not prevent commons-style collective failures. #corroborates (0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2002
• Individually rational resource use leads to collective ruin when costs are shared #corroborates (0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1943
• Monetary inflation was cast as merely a symptom of governmental and worker misbehavior #contradicts (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 783
• Austerity treats citizens’ consumption as the cause of inflation to justify repressing demand #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 349
• Failure to cooperate is individually rational in zero-sum subsistence economies. #qualifies (0.75)
• Inflation is a social power contest over bargaining power, not a purely monetary event #contradicts (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 526