DJ Diakite
PLTC 171
Professor Richter

Tragedy of the Commons Analysis

The Tragedy of the Commons is an effective metaphor to understanding the exploitation of global property resources by private producers. Its flaws as a metaphor stems from the gross assumptions it makes on human behavior and motivations. When taken at face value, the metaphor can be used to explain broad resource issues that nations are still dealing with today, such as global climate change and the use of natural resources. However, when closely inspected, its generalization about the community-shared commons is not as accurate.
Garret Hardin's article has received vast critical acclaim and is considered one of the finest works regarding natural resource issues. In his article, Hardin claims that all commonly owned resources are doomed to destruction. This is due to the fact that men are greedy, and instinctively pursue their own best interests. Given is an example involving a common pasture open to all, in which it is expected that every herdsman is going to try keep as many cattle on the commons as possible in-order to try make the most profit. However as the commons is overgrazed productivity goes down causing each herdsman to add more cattle in an attempt to bring their profits back up. It is in this desire for self-interest that the tragedy of the commons occurs.
The Tragedy of the Commons metaphor is best understood when applied to large-scale resource issues. In order to do so, the community commons Hardin referred to must be expanded to a more global context. Climate change is an excellent example of the Tragedy of the Commons on a larger scale. In addition to resource exploitation, the metaphor also applies to pollution. In the pollution scenario, instead of withdrawing resources from the commons, the rational company discharges harmful things into it. This occurs because the polluter receives the benefit of cheap disposal of wastes, with little regard that the polluted air or water is a cost shared by all parties. One of the solutions to this tragedy of the commons is impose harsh penalties on the companies that insist on polluting and offer tax breaks to the companies that are willing to invest on more expensive, yet environmentally safe waste disposal. By implementing a punishment-reward system, it deters the companies from choosing the most economically beneficial course of action.
The limits of the Tragedy of the Commons metaphor are seen when it is applied to smaller, communal resources. In his article, Hardin asserts that the herders are purely motivated by economic opportunities and that each herder is acting rationally. The metaphor also makes some negative assumptions about human behavior and motivations. In the commons example, the herders are socially detached from the rest of their neighbors and are unmoved by public perception of their actions. The grossest assumption the metaphor makes on human behavior is that by acting in their own self-interest, the herders are acting rationally. When in actuality, a community that shares fields has a strong incentive to protect them to the best of its ability, even if that means not maximizing current production. That is because those resources will be essential to the community’s survival for centuries to come.
The Tragedy of the Commons is a dilemma where there is overconsumption of a communal resource due to the actions of self-interested individuals. The choices made by the individual actors are extremely beneficial in the short-term. As a metaphor for shared resource consumption, it assumes that when making decisions, people take the course of action that maximizes their own utility. However, if every actor seeks to do this, the net effect eventually depletes a shared resource making everyone worse off in the long term. The weaknesses of the metaphor lie in the strong assumptions it makes on human behavior and motivations. The strengths of the metaphor are apparent in its compatibility with broad resource issues. The best solution to the Tragedy of the Commons dilemma is to transfer the communal resource into a more reliable controller. By doing so, incentives and punishment can be applied in order to discourage the individual actors from depleting the shared resource.