An Obsession Made Worse

A couple of weeks ago, a few of my friends introduced me to this show. Before I agreed to watch, they warned me that once I watched the first episode, I would be hooked. And they were absolutely right. The show is a Korean drama called Boys Before Flowers that airs on Mondays and Tuesdays in Korea. Despite the fact that the whole show is in Korean, and I have to watch it in subtitles on my computer, I haven’t missed an episode. A little pathetic I know. But according to the viewing count of the videos, I am not the only one who is obsessed, there have been over 2 million views just on one site. It’s a sensation I tell you.

So yesterday morning in class we were discussing the different types of goods and their characteristics. Yesterday was also Tuesday, which meant the last episode of the week was to be uploaded sometime midday. And I have to admit, there were a few times when I got distracted and had to check the website to see if the videos were uploaded yet. Then after I got home from class, I started to realize how similar my obsession to this show was related to what we had talked about in class. The ability to freely watch Boys Before Flowers without hindering anyone else’s capabilities of watching it, means that it is a public good. It is both non-excludable and non-rival. But this is only up to a certain point. For example yesterday when I was finally going to watch the latest episode, the website crashed, and had a notice saying they were having difficulties due to the amount of people trying to watch. I was horrified! I had waited a whole week only to have to wait longer because my favorite public good had now turned into a common resource. How did this happen? While Boys Before Flowers was still non-excludable, due to the overwhelming popularity of the show, it had become rival and therefore difficult to access. Luckily after a couple of hours I was able to beat a few competitors and squeeze my way through to catch the latest developments of the drama.

So now I know that patience is the only way to combat this atrocity we call the common resource. Now if any of you want to join me in this fight, Boys Before Flowers usually gets uploaded on Mondays and Tuesdays on Viikii.net. I guess this doesn’t help my chances, but I believe in sharing too. Enjoy!Emma Lynch
Econ 200
Tues/Thurs 8.00 am