The Milk Crisis

Across the corridor outside our office is the mail room, which also hosts two big fridges. One of them serve CS students and staff dairy products at cheaper prices than on-campus retailers. The way it works is everybody registers an account at the milk czars, and cross-marks on a sheet whenever they get something from the fridge. One can deposit money to her account and has a 20$ credit line if the account is in debt. The prices of each item is slightly higher than its cost in bulk, how much depends on how accurately people report their purchases. Consumption statistics and new prices are published on a regular base.

There was a major trust crisis in the mail/milk room last month. Normally, the reporting rate of dairy consumption falls somewhere between 85% and 95%, and exceptions are very rare. However, after the spring semester began, updated statistics showed 35% items were unreported. It was really hard to believe many registered account holders suddenly decided to take "free rides" simultaneously, especially at a time when prices just reached a historical low. Then the question is, who are they? Since people having the keys of the mailroom are largely constant and completely traceable, it is also hard to believe abrupt changes in the behavior of key-holders. Finally, we will have to turn our eyes on transient population in the building. How people without keys get into the mailroom remain a mystery to me.

The crisis agitated the milk czars and they took action. Warning sheets were stuck to both outer and inner sides of the fridge, with exclamation marks flying around. Prices were raised, sadly. After another cycle in the mailroom, latest stats shows we now hit another near-perfect record, only 1 item was not claimed, giving us a 99.5% reporting rate. In other words, the crisis and counteraction not only stopped emerging free-riders, but also refresh the morals in everybody else.

We have survived the crisis. How long this trend can keep going I am not exactly sure. But the wound is still fresh, as the prices now match retailers' to make up for the previous losses. However, things could have been worse, with the corrupting morals infecting everybody and bankrupting the milk foundation. The equilibrium in the mailroom is fragile. There is simply no proof that we will always bounce back from the edge of breaking down.