The Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin American Ecologist and Microbiologist ( ) Controversial figure Concerned with overpopulation Pro-abortion Pro-population control by government Pro-assisted suicide Anti-immigration Anti-international aid “The Tragedy of the Commons” Published in Science magazine 1968 Had four children Committed suicide together with his wife when he was 88 (she was 81)

Problems with no technical solution Thomas Malthus ( , English political economist and Reverend): Population grows exponentially, food supply can only increase arithmetically, so eventually we will starve (or decrease population via wars, disease or anarchy) Some problems cannot be solved with science, e.g. the arms race. Overpopulation and competition for resources is this kind of problem. Since no technical solution, the solution must be political.

What does commons mean? “Held in common” means the resource is owned by: No one…or Owned by a group =all who have access to the resource.

Common Resources

What are common resources? 1.Air! No one owns the air. 2.Water in oceans & rivers. 3.Fish in the sea. Note: First codified by Romans in 535 AD.

Imagine… Hardin’s parable involves a pasture "open to all." He asks us to imagine the grazing of animals on a common ground. Individuals are motivated to add to their flocks to increase personal wealth.

Tragedy of the Commons Every animal added to the total degrades the commons a small amount. Although the degradation for each additional animal is small, the gain in wealth for the owner is greater.

Tragedy of the Commons As selfish stewards, each owner adds another to their flock and the pasture. If all owners follow this pattern the commons will ultimately be destroyed.

Tragedy of the Commons As a result, the commons were overgrazed and degenerated to the point that they were no longer able to support the villagers' cattle. This failure to preserve the natural resources is known as "the tragedy of the commons."

What is the “tragedy”? “We can avoid tragedy only by altering our values.” Hardin, 1968 This means we can change the way we live (sustainably) by preserving our natural resources—even in the private sector.

Overpopulation Hardin’s main concern. “Freedom to breed is intolerable” Overpopulation harms the world as a whole. The more people there are, the fewer resources there are available to each person. As long as we have a welfare state, people will continue to have more children than is good for society. Rational agents maximize their own good (more children), when the cost to them is relatively low because the cost is shared in common with society as a whole. Assumption: each child is a net good to its parents but a net bad to society.

Solution Hardin: appeals to individual conscience are bad because: 1) It discriminates against people of good conscience, and tends to eliminate them from the population. 2) It won’t work in the long run. Nature’s revenge. People without conscience will outbreed the others, and population will increase again eventually. 3) It is not psychologically healthy to force people to act against their own interests on the basis of conscience. So the only choice is “mutual coercion mutually agreed upon” Freedom must be limited.

Mutual Coercion Mutually Agreed Upon Mutual coercion to solve population problem (government regulation on number of offspring allowed) and other problems of the commons: Enclose the commons as private property, Or limit usage of the commons (e.g. limits on people’s right to pollute, to fish on the high seas, to increase public noise levels, etc.) Quotes Hegel (Engels): “Freedom is the recognition of necessity” Rights and freedoms must be restricted for the good of everyone. The right to breed in excess is like the right to steal from banks – it must be controlled.

Discussion 1.Where do you stand on Hardin’s ideas? Do you strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree? 2.Does the “Commons” reflect utilitarian conservation or biocentric preservation?