For a thought experiment assume you are an Industrialist running a Ice factory who depends on a underground aquifer for water supply which can hold a maximum of 12 Gallons at a go. You share this aquifer with three other such industrialists. Let's consider the aquifer starts at full capacity Ie., there are 12 Gallons of water in the pond initially and the water replenishes every night in a manner that for every two gallons there would be another gallon added each night. So, to maximize this supply how much water can each of you corporate can dig up each day?
Think about it. Assume that water replenishes almost immediately and disregard the other factors like rain.
The answer is one! Yes, each of you industrialist can take exactly one gallon of water for production each day to maintain an adequate water supply. The math here works like this: If each of the four industrialists dig up one gallon each there would be 8 gallons of water left in the aquifer. For these 8 gallons, there would be 4 gallons of water adding up each night bringing the aquifer to its full capacity every morning thus maintaining a steady and constant supply. If any of the industrialist takes more than one gallon of water from the aquifer, the number of gallon pairs drop and eventually the capacity of the aquifer won't bounce back. Ultimately, all the water in the aquifer would be exhausted leaving all the 4 industries to shutdown. This problem is one classic example of an economic concept called "The Tragedy of Commons".
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| Courtesy: Study.com |
Tragedy of Commons is an economic theory that explains how people often use natural resources to their own advantage without considering the good of a group or a society as a whole. When number of individuals act selfishly, it leads to negative outcome for everyone as the natural resources become depleted like water, ponds, fish, living space or even clean air.
This concept was first developed by Economist William Foster Lloyd, MA, during his study on the problem of overgrazing of cattle in 1833 consequently repurposed by Garett Hardin after more than 100 years. You can read his paper here
Hardin during his arguments theorized that these situations arise when an individual decides to pitch in for own self interest against the common good disregarding welfare of the others which ultimately results badly for every one including depletion of limited natural resources, over population and pollution.
An opportunity provided to an individual to exploit a resource for own interest and the ability spread out the negative effects over a large group rather than personalized risk is a key feature of Tragedy of Commons.
To understand this lets get back to our corporate problem. Each industrialist is motivated to dig up as much water for himself. However, should there be any scarcity of the water in the water shall be bared by all the industrialists who are dependent on the aquifer. The anxiety of losing out to peers corporate competitive conclusions dictates that it is of his/her own best interest that the industrialists dig up a few extra gallons of water. Unbeknownst to each other, this is the same conclusions made by all the dependents and that's the Tragedy. A solution optimal in the short term for an individual or a group isn't optimal in long term for anyone. This is a simple illustration..
The Tragedy of Commons plays out a very complex role in actual world. For instance, usage of antibiotics has drastically increased the production of food products from cattle a short term gain and in fighting uncommon diseases in humans. But, the excessive usage of these antibiotics resulted in evolution of stronger germs which are resistant to these antibiotics resulting in deadly diseases threatening an entire population.
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| Courtesy: Phys.org |
Similarly, usage of fossil fueled vehicles have brought down the cost and time and proved economic to their owners. However, the effects of pollution due to these vehicles is proving to deadly to the entire planet and their negative effects sticks around for thousands of years. Even the purchase of bottled water results in an unprecedented plastic pollution levels.
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| Courtesy: downtoearth.org.in |
But, we humans are gifted and we proved that we are capable of making remarkable inventions. We create social contracts and make communal agreements, elect governments and we pass laws. All this is for saving our collective selves from our own impulses.
This isn't easy and we might not succeed every time. We at our best have proven that we can solve these problems and we can continue to do so.
We need to remember that "When a tragedy happens, what's best for everyone, is best for each one of us"
Inspired from
TED Ed Education.
Good sai naresh
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