Question

Consider what you read in The Tragedy of Commons and write a 2 to 3 page paper describing how Hardin formulates the population problem.
Evaluate his assumptions and his solutions in light of other evidence from the course.

Answer 1

                        The Tragedy of commons is a situation in the shared resource system where the individual users while making use of the shared resource system would in their self-interest would behave contrary to the common good of all the users by depleting the resource through their collective action. It was conceptualised by the unregularized grazing on a common land. The concept said that on a land that could sustain some number of sheep, if one more quantity is added, it is difficult to find out the small change in the input, but the consumption of other sheeps would fall by a number which could affect the income of their owners. This means that the added sheep and its owner would get an added benefit of double the current benefit whereas the other people would get a lower benefit due to this. This is an example of the free-rider problem in economics.

                        The Malthusian concept of population growth and the effects it has on the society is also a consideration for the same. It was stated that the increasing population growth in an unscientific manner would result in the depletion of resources and the effect would be disadvantageous for the existing consumers as they would have to consume on a lower input. Hardin relates this problem also to the concept of ‘Prisoner’s dilemma’ and the excess need of wants in the society. According to Hardin, certain groups of people are responsible for the free-rider mechanism in the society due to which other members of the society would have a disadvantageous consumption pattern which may affect the productivity and the efficiency of the society and the economy as a whole. He argues on the concept of ‘mutually agreed upon coercion’ and according to him, the problem lies with those nations that have a higher fertility rate, which are usually the poorest and low industrialised nations.

                        According to Hardin, one way to address this problem would be to privatise the commons. If the resources were owned privately, the people with higher fertility rates would have to compete in the marketplace for the resources. This might lead to policies that might result in the reduction of the population growth in the society. He does not agree with the Malthusian concept of ‘moral restraint’ from breeding as it is an individual choice. He also states that too many people would produce too many wastes which could lead to an increased pollution in the ecosystem which would have a considerable effect on the economy of the nation and finally the wealthy countries would have to provide assistance to the poorer countries to overcome these effects. The solution provided by Hardin is increased privatisation of the property and prices so that they are not available at a price that would reward the free-riders in the society. The concept of demographic transition in a nation and the effects of the same has also to be considered in this regard. On analysis, it is also seen that the average consumption and the footprint of America is almost 20 times that of Bangladesh which reveals that the lion’s share of the consumption of resources are done by the western nations. He also had an insights that individual rational behaviour would lead to collectively irrational outcomes.