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Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia

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The tragedy of the commons is the concept which states that if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource such as a pasture, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether. Even if some users exercised voluntary restraint, the other users would merely supplant them, the predictable result being a tragedy for all. The concept has been widely discussed, and criticised, in economics, ecology and other sciences. The metaphorical term is the title of a 1968 essay by ecologist Garrett Hardin. The concept itself did not originate with Hardin, but rather extends back to classical antiquity, being discussed by Aristotle. The principal concern of Hardin's essay was overpopulation of the planet. To prevent the inevitable tragedy (he argued) it was necessary to reject the principle (supposedly enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) according to which every family has a right to choose the number of its offspring, and to replace

Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia Jump to content From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Overuse of a shared resource This article is about the concept. For other uses, see Tragedy of the commons (disambiguation) . Industrial pollution is one of the consequences of operators ignoring their effect on the shared environment. Part of a series on Economics Outline Index Glossary Economists Principles of Economics Tools and methodology Economic theory Mathematical modeling Game theory Rational choice Cognitive science ( Behavioral ) Economic equilibrium Empirical methods Experimental Econometrics T

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