The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource.
This economic theory was first conceptualized in 1833 by British writer William Forster Lloyd. In 1968, the term “tragedy of the commons” was used for the first time by Garret Hardin in Science Magazine.
This theory explains individuals’ tendency to make decisions based on their personal needs, regardless of the negative impact it may have on others. In some cases, an individual’s belief that others won’t act in the best interest of the group can lead them to justify selfish behavior. Potential overuse of a common-pool resource—hybrid between a public and private good— can also influence individuals to act with their short-term interest in mind, resulting in the use of an unsustainable product and disregard the harm it could cause to the environment or general public.1
Reflections, questions
- how to appropriately allocate resources for projects that are beneficial to earth that are unable to support themselves in the current economic system?
- e.g. circularity—making better use of resources on a smaller scale. precious plastics, community gardens, etc.
- Generative AI feels like the latest in a series of solutions to non-problems that generates money but doesn’t solve real problems
- Meanwhile, we have real problems (externalities, mostly?) that are less solvable because they don’t generate money to pay for themselves in a simple, straightforward way, so fewer people are motivated to work on them and we don’t dedicate enough resources to them.
- So many people are looking for things to engage in day to day, but they are motivated primarily by money, rather than public benefit (social and collective health, environmental health). How to rebalance this so that people are incentivized to work on beneficial projects?