in game theory models the Stag Hunt is the visionaries greatest tool. It goes something like this
A group of hunters are walking in the forest. If anyone wants to hunt a hare, he may, and he will get one pound of meat. If anyone wants to hunt a stag he may, but will need the cooperation of the entire group to bring down the stag. A share of the meat from he stag will be ten pounds each. If anyone chooses to hunt the hare, he may not hunt the stag, and anyone hunting the stag will be unable to catch anything, if anyone chooses to hunt hare.
The best payoff for each hunter is for them to cooperate and hunt the stag, but it only takes one shortsighted fool to ruin it for everyone. This model scales really well, and its variations are primary arguments for pursuits of world peace, space travel, and the banning of biological weapons. A prosperous global peace is greatly beneficial to all, but it only takes a few shortsighted idiots to wreck it by causing near endless global conflicts, usually because they have figured out how to make money from it.
The most exciting application is usually in space travel and colonization, where everyone’s cooperation toward that pursuit could greatly benefit all, but it can be difficult to maintain support of enough people to see such projects through to their ultimate benefits.
Nearly all socialized (I tend to define government activities that maximize economy of scale for the benefit of the general public as “socialist”, so even public roads and the like are socialist programs) programs have the same issues, the difficulty is in keeping shortsighted “anti-government” types from becoming bureaucrats and wrecking the program by simply causing work stoppages and unlawfully denying benefits to those who qualify.
Many group projects fall into this classification in one form or another. The next time you have a big idea, don’t forget to put some effort up front into motivating support and getting enough people on board to keep the “hare hunters” at bay.
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