The Tragedy of the Commons

I found the article by Garrett Hardin to be interesting. In this article, Hardin talks about the problem of population growth and whether it would work itself out. Hardin also discusses the tragedy of the commons. When people are sharing a resource, they realize that it is limited but believe it is in their own best interest to use a little extra because they are the only ones that will benefit from it but everyone will share the negative of more of the resource being used. This in theory would still benefit the individual, but the problem is that everyone using the resource has the same thought to do this, so the resource becomes depleted. This is the tragedy of the commons. Pollution is an example of a reverse tragedy of the commons, because instead of taking something out, pollution is being put into the environment.

Hardin goes on to acknowledge the effects of conscience on decisions. He says that by telling people to do one thing, they then think that if they follow it they will be regarded as a simpleton, and are then caught in a double bind between their two choices. He concludes that for the commons to be justifiable, there must be a low population. Once the population gets too large, the commons must be abandoned.