CAGUIAT, Gian Daniele T.

2015-
06526

TFD Dr. Marquez

The Tragedy of the Commons is a dilemma that occurs when a group shares an open and
limited resource. It says that self-interest and competition can cause people to ruin a shared resource.
To be simply put, it may also be understood as the problem with open access.

This concept was based upon the Victorian economist, William Forster Lloyds essay in 1833. He
used the effects of unregulated grazing of herds on common land as a hypothetical example of the
concept. After over a century later Garrett Hardin, an American ecologist wrote an article that caused
the concept to be widely-known in 1968.

In the article, Hardin discusses the fact that open resources are condemned to be ruined. This
is because of the greed of men, and their instinct to pursue their interests despite the trouble and
inconvenience they may cause. Given is an example involving a common pasture open to all: The
farmers share a pasture for their cows. The cows eat the grass, but the grass grow back and so the
cows have more grass to eat. As a result the farmers add more cows which eat more grass.
Eventually the grass could barely grow fast enough to keep the cows fed. One farmer decides to add
another cow in the pasture, figuring that it wouldnt hurt much because it would only eat less grass but
the farmer is still able to get more profit from the extra cow. All the other farmers feel and think the
same way in fear of losing out to the others, they tend to add more cows to their herd in order to gain
more profit from the open pasture. That is the tragedy of the commons. But it doesnt only threaten the
farmers and their herd. Stocks of Atlantic cod are greatly diminished, it may also be related to people
stuck in traffic, each one driving a car of their own and thus causing the roads to be full.

By studying the interactions between the people and their environment, researchers are
becoming better able to figure out ways to protect forests, ranges, oceans and even highways. This
will be very important as the population of the earth increases but the space available stays the same.
More people would be using the commons, and we may be in the brink of destruction.

If people ruin what they share, or what we could call the commons, sometimes the best
avenue would be to not share. Once again referring to Garrett Hardins example, each farmer could
ensure to protect their own property due to their self-interests- in this case, maybe putting a fence in
between each others land. But not everybody is okay with making public land private property. And
some things like the ocean, and the sky cant be divided and be made private in any case. Luckily,
another idea is for people to cooperate especially if they feel like its a shared sacrifice. Unfortunately,
it only takes a few freeloaders and rule breakers to ruin the commons for everyone. In those cases,
rules are required. Research supported by the National Science Foundation has shown that
privatization, cooperation, and regulation- No Littering signs accompanying a fine for rule breakers,
would help to protect the commons, but only if proper enforcement exists.

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 Without people noticing, little by little they are contributing to the destruction of the commons.
The use of National Parks, pollution, and the freedom to breed is often abused by the people because
they see it as their own personal right to make use of these commons. In order to pursue indefinite
sustainability, everyone must learn to look at things from a global standpoint instead of from an
individual point of view. Although it may seem practically impossible to get people to think as if we are
one global entity, we must help through little things, such as discouragements to selfish to selfish acts
such as littering, and instead contribute to making our environment cleaner and more able to sustain
the earths ever growing population.

According to Hardin, the solution to the tragedy is in one of the two possibilities: Either we
must enclose or privatize the commons or we must allow our government to regulate them. In his
argument, he is in favor of the first one instead of the latter. He believes in the necessity of enclosing
the commons in order to prevent the over-exploitation of them. This argument of his has become
accepted as a truism in resource management. Because, going back to the example of the open
pasture, by doing this privatization of land in contrast to negatively affecting other farmers by over-
exploitation of the grass by adding more cows in their herd to feed from the open pasture, if they
added an extra animal to their herd, they would only be hurting themselves. Each person would have
an allotted space for their animals to feed from and it would be in their hands if they exceed the ideal
herding capacity of their land, degrade the profit they would receive because the animals would be
less fed. They would be able to do this without actually affecting the other farmers who are in this
case, in control of their own lands.

If it was up to me, I personally think that all of these solutions must come together in balance.
Privatization of land is an acceptable idea because it would help to prevent the over-exploitation of the
commons. Also, by allowing the government to have control over some of the open areas, people
would somehow be responsible enough to make use of the resources with a price. Letting the people
acknowledge a higher authority would somehow make them responsible enough to know their limits
with the fear of facing the consequences of rule breaking and abuse. In the end, privatization,
cooperation, and the appeal to ones conscience in terms of his or her care for the environment and
their fellow protectors are the ideal solutions to this tragedy.

Number of Words: 1000

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html

https://worldpoliticsblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/alternative-solutions-to-the-tragedy-of-the-
commons/

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http://kevinrosscox.me/2008/06/08/a-solution-to-the-tragedy-of-the-commons-chapter-1/