Question

What is the tragedy-of-the-commons? Explain why (how) this occurs? How can this problem be remedied?

Answer 1

Tragedy-of -the-commons can be simply defined as a very real economic problem where individuals tend to exploit shared resources so the demand greatly outweighs supply, and the resource becomes unavailable for the whole.

Now lets understand with an example what exactly the problem is, assume you are living in a village and you are dependent on local pond from where you catches fish now assume there are 4 pairs of fishes available and each produces 1 baby which full growns in night so now there are 6 pairs avoid the sex of the fishes. Now if each catches 1 fish every day then balance will be created and everyday each will get adequate supply of fish but if anyone takes more than 1 fish then the number reproductive pairs reduces and finally one moment will come when there will be no fishes available.

This is a classic example of Tragedy-of-the-commons The concept originated by the British economist William Forster Lloyd, in 1833 in a discussion of overgrazing of cattle of village common areas. Garrett Hardin revived this idea to describe what happens when many individuals all share limited resources like grazing areas, fishing space, living space and even clean air.

Now how this occurs :

This occurs due to short term intrest against common good and they end badly for everyone. The key feature of Tragedy-of-the-commons is that it provides an opportunity for an individual to benefit to him or himself while sprending out negetive effects across on big scale.

For eg - The over usage of different chemicals has led to short terms gains like producing food but resulted in different types of diseases

Another can be example of AC which are giving relaxation for consumer, profit to producers but affecting negetively on a global scale.

Solutions for Tragedy-of-the-commons

1) Accountability where each person is limited to the amount of the common resource that they can access. This often would require some level of government control. This will ensure common public good rather than uneven distribution

2)Capitalism is a another solution. People pay for limited use of the common resource and the money paid goes into a common fund.

3)Assign ownership for the resources as this will lead to a responsibility of managing the resources wisely and fairly.

At the last we human have proved this that we are capable of solving this by assigning government, making laws and signing contracts for the better world.