Question

Tragedy of the Commons Question

Hardin uses pasture land as his working example but toward the end of his article mentions other resources to which the tragedy of the commons analysis applies: water and air, financial institutions that have a guarantee of government bailouts for losses, and public roads with no tolls. Do the following all have the same pattern of debate?

Answer 1

The Tragedy of Commons is a frequently quoted article which Hardin had contributed to in the year 1968. Hardin rapidly helped in developing a clear idea, of why common resources such as pastures, water air etc are over exploited and how this problem can be addressed. Largely his ideas and debates on both pasture lands, and others such as government bailouts were similar and the debate thus had the same pattern.

In his article, he wrote about how the exploding population has had an effect on government expenditure and raised his focus on why exactly, governments have tried to control the problem. He correctly mentioned that common resources get depleted primarily because people having self interests fail to realize that their individual consumption patterns turn into collective problems for each one of them.

The government thus, can only bail out the common public to a certain extent and it is in the interest of the commons to utilize resources wisely so as to avoid the tragedy that the common resource dries out.

Therefore, the debate of the tragedy of commons, applies to all resources which are collectively used be it pastures, water, air or public roads the use of which are directly linked to every individuals consumption pattern. He correctly stated that the consumption of any individual should not hurt the other, and people should find a means to use the resources in a sustainable manner. This theory, therefore is picked by environmentalists and economists alike.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section if any.