Question

After reading the exceprt from Hardin's essay, discuss the following questions with your class

After reading the excerpt from Hardin's essay, discuss the following questions with your class 1. What is Garret Hardin most concerned about? 2. How can "the commons" best be defined? 3. Are individuals who overuse "the commons" acting irrationally? Explain. 4. Besides the "common pasture", what other resources does Hardin identify as "commons"?

Answer 1

1. Hardin is most concerned about the philosophy "freedom in the commons". He believes that this is the root of the tragedy- the reason of the ruin of the commons. Each individual is only concerned with self maximization and ignores the consequences of his decisions on the other individuals. In a world with limited capacity, each individual is trying to maximize his gains in an unlimted fashion in a "commons" setting.

2. The Commons can best be defined as a resource which is open to all, without limit. In such a setting, all the benefits are privately accrued while the costs are shared among the people which makes the private benefit much higher than the private cost to an individual. This leads to over utilization of resources because a commons is a resource that is not regulated and can be accessed by all

3. The individuals overusing the commons are comparing private benefits to private costs. However, they fail to take into account the social cost of their decisions and thus, indulge in over utilizing the resource. This is a classic case of individual rationality versus collective rationality. A decision that is beneficial at the individual level gives a poorer social or collective outcome because people are ignoring the negative externalities arising from their private decisions.

4. Apart from common pastures, Hardin classifies the pollution problem as a case of tragedy of commons (air and water). Oceans and national parks are other resources he classifies as commons.