Question

What is the tragedy of the commons? How might this problem be avoided? Min 300 words, Max 400 words

•Use references to develop your arguments

Answer 1

The tragedy of the commons is an economic problem in which every individual has an incentive to consume a resource at the expense of every other individual with no way to exclude anyone from consuming. It results in overconsumption, under investment, and ultimately depletion of the resource. As the demand for the resource overwhelms the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others who can no longer enjoy the benefits. Generally, the resource of interest is easily available to all individuals; the tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals neglect the well-being of society in the pursuit of personal gain.

Given below are the solution:

One solution is accountability where each person is limited to the amount of the common resource that they can access. This often would require some level of government control.

Another solution is to have a common identity such as the successful Kibbutz in Israel. Individual greed is checked by a group identity where all the people of the community share not only the common resource but share the profits

Capitalism is a third solution. People pay for limited use of the common resource and the money paid goes into a common fund.

A fourth solution is to change human nature so that people are not selfish or greedy. This has not worked in the past. It seems from empirical evidence that mankind is not naturally good.