A free society thought exercise.

There's a hole in the damn dam and water is rushing in. You're desperate. Your friends and family and everyone in the valley could lose everything.

Some people think you should plug the hole with cloth. Some say block it with metal from the other side. Some say cement. Some people say "Let the water come in, it's only going to get 1 foot high on our side."

Without thinking you rush to block the water with your hands. It's mostly ineffective, but others come and join you. And it's something.

Someone takes their shirt off and jams it in the hole which slows the rate of water a little, but the water keeps coming in. Someone drops a towel on the other side of the damn dam and it gets sucked into the hole and the rate of water slows more, but it's still flooding on your side of the damn dam.

Eventually someone brings a large piece of sheet metal and lowers it into the water, but right before it's put into place another person shows up with a thick rubber sheet and says "This will block the hole better!"

People talk about it and you decide to try the rubber sheet instead of the metal and the suction from the leak pulls it tight into hole and the water flow drops to a trickle. Now people start pouring Portland cement (look it up) into the hole from the dry side of the leak and eventually the leak is sealed and the flooding stops.

Exhausted you and others step back from the damn dam. There's only 2 inches of water on your side. And you look at everyone who rushed to help and you smile.

And then that one guy says "I told you it wasn't going to flood that bad! This is only 2 inches! You said it was going to flood!"

Here's the thing. You can't do anything about that guy. He's not going to help. Getting mad at him doesn't make it better. Ordering him to help is crazy. Some people are just freeloaders.

Freeloaders are the price we pay for having a free society.
but if you stop to worry about them you're going to end up deep in water.