Question

Garrett Hardin's economics theory, The tragedy of the commons, cites dilemmas that occur when individuals act out of their own self interest and deplete common resources needed by others. Identify and discuss current examples of this economic theory.

Answer 1

The tragedy of commons was published by  Garrett Hardin's in 1968.Garrett Hardin's theory states that people working in an independent and rational manner ,in their own self interest will exhaust shared resources even though this may not be in the best interest of the people.For example farmers may bring their cattles to graze in the common land in their own interest because they considered this to be beneficial.But after sometime the shared resource ie the pasture will get totally exhausted as people acted in their own way.This problem according to Garett , was felt in numerous social aspects,because each and every person gains by the exploitation of common resource at very less cost.

For example, if many individuals resort to fishing, each person will gain as it will bring income to them .But the common resource or shared resource ie  fish will get exhausted eventually. Thus group as a whole wll suffer even though individuals gained.Deforestation , ie cutting of trees is another example.When trees are cleared, those who own the land gains as this becomes pasture land.The cost of the loss of the rainforest will be distributed to all.Another example may be pollution. When a person goes to the office driving a car he gains . But the emission of gas will pollute the common resource ie air and everyone will suffer.