tragedy of the commons reading and video notes

what is the Commons

any resource which is shared by a group of people new land for farming and grazing land for life stock fish from sea wood for fuel

example!

each family in fourteenth century Britain attempted to gain wealth by putting as many animals on the commons as it could afford, but resulted in overgrazing that ruined the pasture, and no stock could be supported after

what is the "logic of the commons" and fallacy of it

each household has the right to take resources from and put wastes into the commons each household is attempting to do the same thing!!

root cause of problem

nature cannot restore resources a lake can only sustain a certain number of fishers each year before its fish population begins to diminish

overall outcome now

people try for sustainable yield, but greed dominates. POPULATION GROWTH - freedom to breed

ways to avoid the tragedy of the commons

-creating and selling property rights to scarce resources, but didn't help control greed when people would privately own much land -top-down regulations -bottom-up institutions

What is the tragedy of the commons?

Garrett Hardin the tendency for a common resource to be overused because people act irrationally in their own self interest

contemporary example of tragedy of commons

HIGH SEAS modernization of fishing techniques means nature cannot sustain output

what happened to the commons over history

used to have a right to hunt or gather within a common, but was ok because the population was small and commons was vast industrial revolution lead to more tragedy of the commons and now whole world is a common

cases of deliberate destruction for the commons

would get wealth out of land before someone else does or leave nothing for others