Comment by Intralexical

Externalities, coordination failure...

It's simultaneously worth vastly more to the community as a whole than the cost of producing it, and yet, to any single individual, the marginal benefit of having it is not enough to justify paying for it.

The naïve solution might be to collectively subsidize it, but then that creates its own moral hazards and perverse incentives.

...It's a bit scary how much of democracy relies on institutions that were only able to form because we lucked into social conditions making them sustainable.