We assume we pay for everything we own and deserve. None of us realise there are ‘externalities’ that should be paid as well. For instance, you purchase a cigarette and u smoke, which is fine – u paid, but, to be extremely fair and square to the public, the secondary smoke that escapes from ur mouth should be paid as well. Being able to fulfill the insatiable desire to smoke even though you paid for the cigarettes does not authorize you the right to smoke in front of others’ faces.
Under the same roof, quite relevantly, it applies the same to the steering lock a person attaches on the steering wheel to avoid his or her car from being stolen. It is a really effective way to prevent car theft as only the owner of the car has the particular key to the lock. Many experienced ones would definitely remember to lock before leaving the car. However, there are also many who do not lock their cars like they do. This imposes a HIGHER risk to the latter’s cars being stolen as thieves will have a greater affinity of picking cars without a steering lock, thus making the drivers without steering locks even prone to be victims. This is the ‘externality’ that drivers with steering locks might not have paid when they purchased a steering lock.

