Individually rational resource use leads to collective ruin when costs are shared

Evidence

In 1968, the biologist Garrett Hardin published a six-page article in Science entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Historically, the commons were public pastures in small communities on which local herders could freely graze their livestock. In such situations, it was in the self-interest of each individual herder to graze as many animals as possible on the commons, since all of the profits from sale of the livestock accrued directly to the individual, while the costs of open grazing—measured in terms of damage to the commons—were shared by all of the herders. Yet, if all of the herders pursued their individually rational course of action, the result was the eventual devastation of the commons. Thus, individual rationality—perfectly sensible and sensibly pursued—led inexorably to collective folly. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1943

Categorization

• DEFINE: The canonical statement of the tragedy of the commons dilemma structure that frames the rest of the chapter.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1943
• XREF: connects to: Money’s broken collective function channeled poisoned funds into unproductive assets. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 410; Diminishing resource bases make constant demands exponentially harmful — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 978; Ecological-space taxation measures resource use plus waste absorption. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 385 (+2 more)