We have so many houses going unused. We have food and resources for everybody, but we’ve set up a system that arbitrarily concentrates most of it on a few people! Young children, with no understanding why society is this way, are suffering and dying because they live in a world that collectively agrees to let this happen unnecessarily
Fuck, I’m stoned but you know I’m right
Edit: and the sad thought hits me: the first step is realizing the system doesn’t have to be this way, the second step is realizing it isn’t going to change, at least not any time soon
There’s a reason they call it the tragedy of the commons.
Edit: The full paper is available online if anyone is interested. Here’s a copy from a university in Michigan. https://pages.mtu.edu/~asmayer/rural_sustain/governance/Hardin 1968.pdf
Never seen Wikipedia article shill capitalist propaganda this hard…
Jfc
The fuck you on about?
The Wikipedia article starts with two paragraphs accurately defining the term, then in the third paragraph above the drop-downs mentions the criticisms. Then two drop-down sections, Solutions and Criticisms, are almost entirely given over to all the ways various people have refuted this.
What do you want, a big flashing red banner at the top that says “This Concept is Bullshit”? I don’t think you understand how Wikipedia works.
I’ll allow it, but only if we can somehow put the same flashing red banner on top of politicians in real life.
The paper this article talks about was authored by an evolutionary biologist that wanted to talk about environmental science problems and social responsibility. Ignoring the concepts of personal property and ownership and stuff, think about this for a minute. 81% of Americans own a yard, but how many of them do you see growing crops in that space? How much more effectively COULD that land be utilized towards the common good if it were managed in some way? Or from the other side: the Alaskan government had to step in and put a halt on Bering Sea crab harvests for a few years because the numbers were critically low. Do you think all of the individual fishermen who are reliant on that income would have voluntarily stopped? Would they even have known the crab population was dwindling?
I can see thinking the tragedy of the commons is capitalist propaganda if you think there is a hard line between people and corporations.
The North Sea fishing industry didn’t collapse because too many of the proletariat wanted to do a lot of fishing, it collapsed because thousands of people organized into dozens of groups that systematically overstrained the ecosystem. Because those groups wanted to make more profit for a small group of hundreds of people. Everyone involved was acting in their rational best interest with no oversight or regulation guarding the big picture view and it caused everyone involved to destroy their livelihoods. Other than the ones at the top who’s livelihood is/was consolidating profit of course.
The tragedy of the commons isn’t about how it’s an individual’s fault or responsibility. It’s about how larger groups need disinterested guardrails for long term higher quality of life.